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Friday, March 13, 2009

What's Your Passion

Go read this by Elizabeth Esther.

I have many thoughts and I'm sure you will too.

Very quickly (very squirmy baby in sling)...

One of the first things that hit me as I read it was the amount of money wasted in my own life picking up all these hobbies.

I love gardens. I love the idea of gardening, of growing our own food...really I am totally in love with the idea, I daydream about it for goodness sake. But it never quite works in real life. First of all, we live in a townhouse with no space for a garden. And before you go on about containers, frankly, the amount of containers necessary to grow enough food to be worth the effort for 10 people is well, absurd. Never mind the amount of work, which again, frankly just is not going to happen in this house. In the past I have spent far too much money hoping to achieve the dream.

This year I'm going to be real. The goal is going to be to make the backyard a pleasant haven for the kids to play. Believe me, it is so far from that now, this will be enough work to keep me busy outside for some time.

As for food, I will pick just 2 types of tomatoes and focus on bringing in a delicious crop of homegrown tomatoes. Herbs will grow in the same container with them, maybe some marigolds too. That's it. Instead of wasting time and money on what will likely be a "fruitless" effort (ha), the children and I will visit the farmer's market weekly (something we already love to do in the summer), make friends with our local farmers, buy what looks fresh and beautiful and I will be at peace that a garden is not my passion.

I have more to say, but the squirmy baby now needs a diaper change.

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