Artists avoiding the studio. Gardeners avoiding their gardens. Songwriters writing no songs. Writers willing to wash every dish in the house rather than sit down with the empty page. Photographers who have let their camera sit in a drawer so long the batteries run down. Bloggers who haven’t posted in they don’t remember when.
When I’m shying away from my long-time creative passions, that’s a pretty good sign something is up. Or down. Maybe there’s something troubling me just enough to keep me from starting on that new idea. Maybe I’ve allowed myself to get so busy there’s no time—there’s a classic trick to avoid all kinds of realizations, temporarily. I may be sounding a bit like Mendy’s creativity blog, but over and over I see that when I’m avoiding time with my favorite muses—the garden, writing & photography—it’s as good as a blazing neon sign over the psyche that says, “Dig Here!” Not that I still don’t busily manage to put that all out of my mind for long expanses of time! But in my experience, creativity practiced regularly and with an open heart will keep you honest in a way that nothing else does—short of a really challenging therapist perhaps…or AA I’m told.
For many months now, I’ve known that we will probably be leaving these Ozarks in a couple of years and moving back home to the Appalachians. Health issues worsened by dry heat, family members transitioning to different states, and just a strong missing for those blue hills of home have all played a part in the decision. The decision has made it difficult for me to face the page, and the garden, for some time. (Oh and an oppressive heat wave most of the summer compounded by severe drought didn’t exactly have me rarin’ to go either, I must confess.)
We want to go slow and plan for moving—lord willin’ etc—in early 2014. We recently returned from an exploratory trip to check out the lay of the land in Southwest Virginia, which has the mountains we love, but also has a bit more open sky and rolling land than our previous home in the steep Black Mountains of North Carolina. Living on the edge of Oklahoma for seven years will give you an unexpected taste for open sky after all. It’s close to old friends but less crowded than Western North Carolina. Washington County, Virginia seems to have most of what we need—nice people but not too-too many, great farmers markets, some arts and cultural venues and goings-on, a local-foods group, decent topsoil and good rainfall. What they don’t seem to have is people moving away and freeing up a house for us! 🙂 But that could be a good sign overall, even though it could take us a long while to find a new little farm.
The thought of leaving this home and the incredible friends we’ve both made here in the Ozarks is nearly enough to make you forswear moving-boxes for the rest of your life. But the reasons to head back home are real. There is sadness in a leaving mixed with the excitement of a new beginning. Wherever we end up, I’ve warned Mendy that I’m going to be looking for a trophy-wife caliber stretch of topsoil without a blade of bermuda grass or a rock to be seen!
Honestly though, as much as I’ve fussed about the rocks here at Larrapin Garden, taking this hillside from then to now has been one of the greatest joys of my life so far. I’ve learned things I never would have known in rich bottomland. We took a somewhat barren expanse and spent years cultivating and growing and creating and cajoling it into this amazing landscape filled with songbirds, woodpeckers, raptors, butterflies, bees, toads, tree frogs, salamanders, lizards, and more. Yes there are snakes and wasps too, but you’d be hard pressed to find three-acres as bustling with beautiful life as these. There are flowers, herbs, fruit trees, shade trees, blooming shrubs for medicine and for pollinators that will grow on even after we leave. There is a large garden with soil rich enough for a family to grow most of their own food where before there was only bermuda grass on compacted dirt. For me, it’s a legacy to pass on to the next gardeners who live, dream and grow here as we have.
In upcoming posts I will share what comes up as this idea moves forward. We’ll see what happen! Thank you so much for being a reader, even when I haven’t always been reliable about my end of the conversation. As always, I’d love to read your comments and hear what’s going on in all your creative gardens!
