Dreams

When I was a young boy, I used to help my grandmother plant a small garden. We would plant corn, melons, radishes, tomatoes, squash and other typical garden crops. In my youth, the anticipation of those seeds becoming edible plants drove me nuts. It was like waiting back in the day on a mail-order package to arrive. It usually took 6-8 weeks from the time you ordered it. Come to think of it, the thought of a package taking more than a few days to arrive is unthinkable by today’s standards, but for seed, nothing has changed. Those rewarding days of planting, waiting, and harvesting never left me and like seeds planted many years ago, the desire to garden again never left me either, it only grew.

Along with the garden, I also dreamt of raising chickens. I guess many of my dreams around gardening came from the Reader’s Digest book called Back to Basics that my grandmother gave me when I was about 12. I have it to this day and I still flip through the pages often. In particular, I like the sections on gardening, raising chickens, composting, canning, wine and cheese making and crafts. The pages of this book and memories of my youth formed the basis of many dreams that I hoped would one day become reality. Looking back in some of my journals, I had drawn pictures of raised bed gardens and chicken coops and jotted down many notes and thoughts capturing numerous ideas, and putting dreams to paper.

Some may call me a dreamer, but I’ve always appreciated dreams and thinking big. With a little hope, faith and perseverance, dreams can become reality. It’s easy to give up and quit, but true joy and happiness comes to those who don’t give up and to those who put their hope in Christ. On April 12th, a new beginning marked this day, the breaking of ground on my dream garden that will have a chicken coop, composting area, rain barrels and even worm beds. As I started the tiller, there was a nervousness that could only be described as “well, here we go.” Knowing that once I started, I had to finish. There would be no looking back. Life moves onward and Spring has come. The ground has been broken and the dreams of many years are becoming reality.