It's Been A While

  So it's been a while.  A lot has happened since my last post.

  COVID for one.  I lost my son, who had special needs.  He had a rare seizure disorder which caused multiple complications in his development.  He was almost 15.

  Since that time I have battled sadness in the mourning and correlated weight gain.  Anxiety and stress related illness.  All the while trying to manage my home and the 5 children that are still in my care.   

  I am doing better.  This season I've been in for the past year hasn't lent much to caring for a garden except for the one in my heart.  

  I've committed myself this year to grow a salsa garden.  I love salsa.  I am in a season of waiting.  Using my "waiting room as a classroom" as I've heard expressed many times by Jessica Sowards from Roots and Refuge Farm Youtube channel. 

  This year, I am only growing things in pots and thoroughly enjoying it.  However small it may be, this season is growing me and helping to heal the wounds of my heart.  

  So thankful to be sitting with a cup of coffee or some ice cold water and enjoying the beauty of Creation I've been given the opportunity to care for.

  Antiquity Gardens is the name of this website but it's also a huge, multifaceted, sustainable agriculture dream I have that encompasses many smaller visions.  Visions to leave my children and their children with a heritage to last for future generations.   I desire is to incorporate learning, growing, music, art, food, and fun.  Providing employment to the average Joe but also the disabled and elderly.  Equipping all who have a desire to garden and live more sustainable, some tools they can use to take home and share with others.

What are your big dreams?  Will you share them with me?

#Sustainablefarming, #permaculture, #backtoeden, #Aquaponics, #gardening, #RootsandRefugeFarm, #JessicaSowards

Lessons in the Garden

In consideration of what I've wanted this site to convey, I'm reminded of lessons I've learned in my gardens.  You see, I believe we can learn in any situation.

One lesson, dear to me, is the time I reflected upon how the garden of my heart is very similar, in concept, to garden in my yard. 

There was a place where my husband's family had burned various things over time.  After years of this activity we were unaware of what lied beneath that time had caused to be hidden.

We began to till the ground to plant a garden and literally found multiple buckets of debris under the covering of grass.  We picked out numerous objects.  From broken glass, and rusty nails, to rocks, old buried toys, and pieces of what used to be treasures long forgotten. 

During this process I began to think about how our lives are a picture of the garden.  How we have to break up the rocky, debris filled ground of our hearts.  The places that have been hardened by heartache and unmet expectations.  That have been etched with hurt and scarred by pain.  Things passed down from generation to generation.  We must do our best to remove and replace the old "soil" with fresh, nutrient rich "compost" materials.  And by doing so the good "seeds", the treasures,  that haven't withered or rotted away over time, have what they need to grow and flourish.  How it's also necessary to continue to tend the work that's been started so the "weeds" will not choke out the growing. 

I cherish the lessons I learn in my garden.

What have your gardens taught you?