So, a couple of nights ago, I couldn't sleep and I started thinking of people who were in my life at one time. I thought of an uncle, halfway across the country, who will be turning 90 later this year. The last time I saw him, in 2003, he told me he owned so much to my late father. His mother died when he was 10, and my father and a couple of other siblings took him into their apartment, a few years later, to finish raising him.
"Your father sacrificed for me and I wouldn't have accomplished what I did in life if not for him." this retired college professor, my father's youngest sibling told me.
Then, my thoughts turned a place where there was spring in March. It certainly wasn't anywhere here in upstate New York, where this morning we were back in the single digits. No, it was a place which I left several months after my father died in the mid 1980's. I had a dream for that place, a dream of homesteading and living off the land that many in my family thought was not achievable-but my father believed in me.
He was wrong.
I had failed, and I left for New York later that year, heartsick and homesick. But now, in my dream, I returned and walked the land I once owned in Northwest Arkansas. On March 6, we would already have been preparing our garden plots. Seeds would have been ordered, and received. We would have been preparing to plant peas, kale, collards, and spinach. Our mail-ordered baby chicks would have been in their pen inside our cabin near the wood stove, entertaining us with their antics and growing every day.
Seed potatoes would have followed into the ground on March 17. Planting potatoes on St. Patrick's Day was a tradition there.
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| Our first Crocus April 6, 2013 |
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| Trees Bloom in Brooklyn May 2013 |
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| Cherry Blossoms Don't Just Bloom in Washington, DC |
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| Lenten Rose, April 9, 2013 |
Once the gardening season gets going, I won't dwell on all the places that get spring before we do. But right now, I envy those places in the worst way. Especially the places where I used to live.
Now, I can stop feeling sorry for myself.
Do you regret leaving a place where you used to live?
I have always live in the same city, just moved around in it. I miss when I lived a little bit outside the town in a small village. I was a teen and we have so much fun running wild in the wood or spend the day at the little beach
ReplyDeleteI can't really say that I miss anywhere I've lived before since I've always left with a purpose, but one day I do hope to move back to the East Coast of Canada. I miss the ocean sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I travel all over the world, I have always lived in California. I probably always will due to family and friends--not to mention the wonderful weather we enjoy year round.
ReplyDeleteRachel recently wrote Attitude is Underrated
Sorry to hear about your health challenges. I feel like all my moves have been "trading up." Still, I do miss people I used to see all the time. And some of the places I lived were really special. But so is the one where I live now.
ReplyDeleteHey Alana, I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better now.
ReplyDeleteI've always lived in the same county. I used to live by the sea when I was little, but then we moved because it was too 'far out'.
I think of fondness about all my past homes--and gardens. I regret the passing years, wish I could bend over plants again and produce wonderful flowers and vegetables.I remember the apricot tree in our back yard in Melbourne, Australia. My sisters and I would climb it for adventures, and eat the fragrant fruit in Summer. However, it's pointless wishing for other circumstances. I'll bend to the winds of change rather than risk snapping.
ReplyDeleteI like the St. Patty's day tradition of planting potatoes... Great photos Alana!
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