Planting Seeds

I have had a nice break for the last three weeks from school.  In that time, I have cleaned the house a bit more, organized a few things, shaved the dogs, spent a few days in Vegas (for the third month in a row!), and watched the most recent season of Survivor that was on my DVR waiting... and was probably my favorite season EVER!  It has been fantastic!  During this time, I have been contemplating upcoming changes - and wondering how soon I should start making those.  I feel like sooner is going to be better than later, so I've started putting things into place for a possible move this Fall, all the while, carrying on here as usual, in case I end up staying for the winter still.  It really depends on how quickly and easily things fall into place for this.

Saturday morning during my last two hours before I started my predictable schedule that will rule my life for the next 2 months, I decided (with some hesitation) to actually plant my garden.  I can't believe I'm starting this late, because the growing season in Idaho is not long, and I won't have much time to harvest, and may end up leaving it somewhere in the middle ... before it's all cleaned up and done.  Those thoughts made me recognize the hesitation that I have had in planting a garden this year.  It came as a question:  Is it worth planting when I might not be here to harvest?  

I really had to think about that ... I mean, my life is busy, and pretty focused on myself and my dogs and what things I need to survive at this point. I say I don't always have time for too many things beyond survival right now because I'm in Graduate School full time and working full time on top of it.  It makes sense to cut out the things that aren't necessary.   But then I also think of how nice it was to have fresh fruits and veggies that I'd grown last year, how much money it saved me over the course of the summer, and how much I was able to share with neighbors!  This process made me think of one of my favorite poems:

I thought that this concept might apply to so many other areas of life as well ... How often do we start things that may benefit others more than they will benefit us?  How often are we willing to put that effort in when we may not reap the rewards at the end?  Is it really worth it?  I really believe in the "Law of the Harvest - you reap what you sow".  Some people call this Karma.  Whatever you want to call it, I have watched it work - not always immediately, but eventually, so that is a motivation to try harder sometimes.

I guess ultimately, I really do want to be the kind of person that is willing to put the time and effort into something, even though I may not reap the rewards of that.  Someone else will, and sometimes paying it forward is enough.  So I planted.