This past birthday I finally admitted to being middle aged, if I plan to live to be 100 that is. I can say on this day as I write this, “Life Is Good.” I’m happily married to a remarkable man, for so many blessed years I’ve stopped counting our anniversaries. Together we have raised three children, ranging in ages from 33, 21, and 16, two sons and a daughter.

I’ve been kneeling in a garden since I was knee high to my mother, who passed on this great joy and source of contentment to me. Although my beloved mother is no longer with me on this earth, I carry her love and her wisdom deep in my heart. Forever she will be part of me.

There is perhaps no place on earth I would rather be than playing in the dirt. I’m particularly passionate about herbs and their uses, and if I see an herb I haven’t grown I want to add it to my limited space. Hence, I have many a pot filled with herbs as well as those planted in my garden, where herbs, perennials and a touch of annuals flourish. I think of my garden as an extension of my home, an additional room to live in, whereas each season I give it an individual personality of its own. It’s filled with not only my collection of plants but old treasures as well. There are antique crocks planted, garden tools that have met their working demise placed here and their for eye appeal of something old that still has a place of value to my heart. A rotted fence length has possibility of being delightfully planted this season. To me it is all of taking the advantage of what is before you to utilize.

I also have a love for writing, and when great adversity plagued our path 4 years ago, these were the two things, my garden and my words, I knew I had to keep alive, for my own self worth. I was determined to not allow my soul, the deep within of my convictions and joys, to fade or die. I would continue to garden and I would make time to write from my heart upon the pages and find my inner spirit once again. It’s been a journey but I have found my way, although with many detours, to a rewarding life again. I’m happy to be at a destination.

Four years later we’ve landed, and I am now again/still a gardener, and a writer, as well as first and foremost, a wife, caregiver to my husband, and a proud mother. Our children were/are our source of the rainbows through the clouds. My husband was/is my inspiration and as he tells it, “Life is only what you make it.” We make it a good life. One I hope you might enjoy peaking into and seeing that no matter what life hands you to handle you have the power to do so.

I measure my wealth not in silver or gold, but rather in my hopes and dreams, in the blossoms of my garden, in the accomplishments of my children and the gracious forgiving attitude of my husband. I measure my wealth in the friendships I have made and nurtured, and in the glory that each day has to give me, if I reach out, grasp it and appreciate that each day holds something of wonder. I look forward to the promise of all of our tomorrows. In Gertie’s Garden all things grow with love, kindness and faith. I hope perhaps you might grow a little in ways you might not have thought of as growth, while visiting me in my Garden of Never Enough Thyme.

Organically Yours,
   Carolyn