Today was a day off of sorts, a day to recoup after one of the strangest work-days I've ever worked (which left me enormously grateful to my co-workers). I didn't have my regularly scheduled writing class and although I had every intention to spend the day writing, instead I wandered, rambled around the house, read some required and non-required stories, and began to pull invaders out of the ground and start the process of nuturing some little seeds. This year I have a grow lamp (an artificial sun) and a heating mat and a schedule. This year I have a plan. There are mostly peppers in the seed starting unit right now but also some strawberries, some marigolds.

The wild onion type grass that grew like mad under all the mats of dried leaves...well that's not part of the plan. Weeding feels like a physical, ruthless, version of the kind of revision heavy writing I've been doing. I am pulling whole chunks of stuff out of the ground, deleting entire pages, and hoping that the tulips and the tales will be better for it.

We can grow stuff no matter what else goes on in the big bad world. I was struck yesterday by the compliment a colleague gave me, she said "you have the best attitude." I hope to keep my attitude fresh with some careful seeding and weeding. Less onion grass, more strawberry.

Thanks,
Rachael