The In-Between, Overwhelm and Little Delights

seasonsartgarden

Mar 28

Spring arrives a little more each day.

daffodil shoots pushing up out of the spring ground — *the first daffodil shoots pushing up out of the ground*

But we’re in the in-between. One day I’ll be wearing shorts and the next I’m getting out my long underwear again.

A little over a week ago my peach tree arrived. I grew the same variety in my last garden and started it in a pot. That baby tree was tiny when it arrived.

my container garden in the corner of my patio included a tiny peach tree, tomato plants and herbs — *the tomato plants were bigger than my baby peach tree!*

But it flourished and when I planted it in the ground in its second year, it produced its first fruit.

My new peach tree isn’t tiny.

a bare root peach tree planted in a pot until its ready to go into a newly designed orchard

I panicked a bit trying to figure out what to do with it. I’m in the in-between, too. I don’t yet have a garden and, more important, I don’t yet have a fence to keep the deer away.

It reminded me of 21 years ago when I ordered bare-root roses for the garden at our house in Cleveland. It was my first real gardening season in our first house and I was eager to begin digging in the dirt. Those roses arrived during a snowstorm and I didn’t yet have the garden bed prepared for them. I frantically called my mom and she assured me everything would be fine.

It was.

*the first garden in my first house was such a joy (do you see the roses planted in the grass?)*

My peach tree will be fine, too.

The in-between is temporary.

Eventually spring will push winter out of the picture for good. Eventually I’ll be able to start digging my new garden.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the in-between days. And overwhelm is everywhere in our modern world, every day. I’ve been trying to figure out how best to handle it. I think a lot of us are pondering questions like this.

sketchbooks, swatches and a watercolor painting in process on the art table in my studio

As I’ve been thinking about my art, my business and my life, I’m reminding myself again and again, how important it is to focus. How important it is to tackle one thing at a time. I’m dreaming of so many projects — art, garden, home — but at any given moment I can only give my attention to one.

a watercolor painting of a begonia plant in process on my painting table

I don’t yet have things figured out, but I do know that whichever path I choose, I want to live my life fully present. Paying attention to the wonders around me. Making art. Growing gardens. Grounded in the natural world.