What a week! I took some time off of my full-time job this week to just take some time off. I work in education as a counselor and activities manager and the last two years have been intense. It has been pretty nonstop since before the pandemic hit and the pandemic has just made things more urgent, more difficult, and more intense. So I gave myself my own little fall break and took time to just be. I didn’t do much. A bit of exercise, going to Trader Joe’s an hour away from home, and some garden tasks. It was glorious.

This week while I was enjoying my time we had our first white sunflowers bloom. White sunflowers are what got me into gardening this summer. I was scrolling through instagram a few months ago and saw that a small farm in Canada had a beautiful field of white sunflowers in full bloom. I had never see them before and I was mesmerized. I went online and ordered a pack of seeds which you can read about here. Then after a couple weeks I realized I needed a different type of seed so I ordered those. They sprouted pretty fast and I had high hopes I would get my white sunflowers this fall.

Then nature happened. Apparently white sunflowers are most attractive to bugs and pests. We quickly had grasshoppers in our yard for the first time ever. They enjoyed some leaf salads but the flowers remained. Then we went to the Grand Canyon for Scott’s birthday and the deer munched some of our plants. But they survived! Then a bunch of bugs decided to make the sunflower their home, and just when I had given up we had a huge influx of ladybugs join our back yard echo system. These bugs were incredible. They just ate and got fat on all the bugs I didn’t want. This sounds so silly but every time I saw a lady bug this month I felt blessed.

After all that nature drama our first white sunflower opened up this week and it was all I hoped it would be. It is soft, beautiful, and new. I know it is silly to feel so attached to a flower but I am really grateful that it bloomed and that more on on the way.

This year has been a really rough one. As I mentioned in the intro of this post my job has been a lot. Anxiety and depression are on the rise in young people and it is hard to see how hard everything is on them. As a nation and a global society we have been through a lot this year and last. And on a personal note I went through a late term pregnancy loss in January. Everything has been a lot. After this last year it has been nice to plant something in our nutrient poor dirt and watch it grow and bloom in about two months time.

While the white sunflowers are undoubtedly beautiful to look at they also bring beauty to my soul. Gardening and spending so much time outside has been healing in so many ways. I am looking forward to continuing this new hobby and finding solace and peace in the things that we grow. I hope that you can find something as magical in your gardens too!