It is not hard to make friends in this very friendly little city. It is the quintessential Texas town which means, among many other qualities, the folks are very friendly. While our house was being built, we spent half a year living in corporate housing downtown. Although I missed my friends at home and I missed my kids away at college and I missed even having my possessions which were all in storage, it really was a fun and interesting time in our lives.
Without kids at home, we started doing ballroom dancing and it was an absolute blast. We toured wineries and did some traveling, just the two of us, like we were newlyweds again. Probably my favorite trip was the one we took to Italy just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world.
Lockdown taught me a lot and I will share that on a different post. This one is about "blooming where I'm planted". You see, I am grateful for my wonderful life and for my hard-working husband of 25 years. I am content with my beautiful home and my new friends and my new life in this great town, but this was not my first choice. My first choice was a mountain home in Colorado and we thought that was where we were headed. Life had a different plan for us. At least for now.
I was working until December when I decided I no longer wish to work. For the first time in my life, I have no kids at home and no job and even though I am fully vaccinated, we haven't really returned to normal parties and hanging out with friends. So, I am often alone and it's been strange to not have kids to take care of or a job to do. I have felt purposeless.
All my life, I have been the worst gardener on the planet. I kill everything. When people give me plants, I always feel so much anxiety because I know I will kill it quickly. Bill is pretty good at gardening. He has always enjoyed it, but just doesn't have much time for it. I knew it was risky, but I told him I was ready to try to plant an herb and vegetable garden this year. I have the time to care for it, so I was ready.
We have beautiful flowers in the front and a few in the back and all the credit has gone to Bill who cares for them. This was going to be my attempt to cultivate a garden and I was scared. We had just come through a huge snow storm that killed so many bushes and plants. North Texas does get snow sometimes, but nothing like what we had in February. I wasn't sure what to expect for the approaching Spring, but I was ready to try.
I began by digging up a large space near my back windows for the herbs and vegetables. Near it, I dug an even larger space between this garden and my apple trees (my mom gave us these as a house warming after our house was built and they are thriving). This big space, I filled with small pebbles and placed a fireplace in the middle with chairs around it and alongside it, large boxes filled with plants and flowers. I used leftover bricks from our home to create a small path leading to the back porch and I put in garden lights. I did the hard work of digging and planting and on the weekends, Bill helped me finish it all off and together, we built a very beautiful garden and we have bees swarming and tomatoes popping up. The apple trees are filled with budding apples. We have huge herbs which I have already been using in my cooking and the peppers and watermelons are even coming out strong. The plants and flowers in the front and back are massive and so colorful. I have been so blessed and happier than I could have imagined watching the effort bring such beauty.
I have a flag in my herb garden (photo above) that serves as a reminder for my soul. You see, I did not move to the town of my choice. And I have felt lost sometimes. I built a beautiful life for two decades in The Woodlands and I still have friends there who are like family to me and I miss them all the time. I miss my running and triathlon friends and getting together with them on Saturday mornings and Wednesday nights to run and hang out. I miss my swim team friends. I miss my girlfriends and grabbing brunch with them or getting mani pedis together. I miss my friends from the Leukemia Society and planning fundraising events with them and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
I also miss the dream I had for my ranch in Colorado (that is a whole long story in and of itself). But what I am learning, especially since resigning from my job in December, is to "bloom where I am planted". Right now, for whatever reason it may be, God has placed Bill and me in Fort Worth. We are in a stage in life that is different than I would have imagined. I know the pandemic has caused this time in our lives to be much different than what we had hoped or planned. But every single day, I hear the words in my mind and soul "bloom where you are planted". Every day, I am learning to grow just like my garden is growing. I am accepting the many situations and circumstances and learning to bloom.
Last night, even though it is April 21, we had another freeze in Texas. At our house, it dipped into the 30s which meant a frost was coming late at night. I was so upset at the thought that we might lose all the plants we've worked so hard to cultivate. I bought plastic shower liners and we used those and some tarps we had to cover everything and we brought all the potted plants inside.
This morning, the sun is out. The temperatures are up into the mid 40s. I took off the tarps and plastic covers. I brought the potted plants back outside and watered everything. And the gardens are beautiful. Nothing is dead! I am sitting out here in the garden with my coffee and I'm so happy.
I am not necessarily where I want to be, but I am choosing contentment. And I will, as the world opens up more, continue to volunteer for causes I believe in. I will bloom right here in Fort Worth where God has planted me.
