Friday Dispatch: Green Thumb
Past and future meet in the garden
Friday greetings,
I love my houseplants. I tend to them with affection, consistency, and care. But I don’t think of myself as having a green thumb. I’ve never created or maintained a garden, just inherited whatever was growing at each home I’ve owned or rented. Now, my mother wonders when she will write her memoir as we drive to Flower Power, 53 acres of eye candy in East Windsor, Connecticut. I ask her if she would have wanted to know she would have dementia when she was my age. Would it have mattered? (No.) We ooh and aah our way through one of six greenhouses, fill a wagon with annuals for the two window boxes I inherited. When we moved in, they were filled with dry old dirt and a faded mini American flag and other sad debris. Now, I overturn them and begin again with dark, moist soil that stains my hands. I hand my mother gloves and scissors and she transforms into a past version of herself and a future version of me, right before my eyes, and there we are clearing out the old growth, making space, beautifying this home as we approach our one-year anniversary in it. Next morning, I fill a watering can, find the first rose, spy a cardinal in flight, and whisper her favorite prayer: Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks.
The above piece is 222 words. I swear I didn’t do it on purpose, so imagine how tickled I was when I did a word count only to realize it’s the same as new hourly rate!
This week, when I attempted to calculate Cost of Living Adjustments and (this part was harder to quantify) the increase in my skills and experiences as a coach, editor, and facilitator, $222 is the number I landed on. As you likely know, I am all about numbers and angels and especially 11s, so this feels like just the right increase to reflect how much my work has deepened and grown over the past many years. (My last – and until now – only 1:1 rate increase was around 2016!)
If you’re curious about working together, be it for creative coaching, spiritual direction, and/or on a specific writing project that’s close to your heart, drop me a line. I offer packages of 6 and 12 sessions, and am also happy to co-create a plan with you. I’m so grateful for a decade of offering fierce encouragement to so many wonderful humans!
Shabbat Shalom and love,
Jena
p.s. And now, for a quick poll…
Re writing group….uncertain…..
Re garden……………delighted!