I Am A Student of Life - Doing the Next Directed Thing

I love springtime because it always seemed infused with a spirit of hope.  Spring looks forward to new beginnings and new growth...especially in the garden.  Around the end of March I start my lists of what to plant in this year's vegetable garden, in April I order my seeds, in May I set the seeds out in seed trays and begin to actually touch the soil.  I visit blogs on gardening, reveling in the handiwork of other gardeners more skilled and more energetic than I and I begin to dream and envision what my garden might look like this year.  Then, something happens to me...I begin to procrastinate.  I look out at the present state of the garden and it is soooo far from the image I am holding in my mind, that I just stand there...frozen, unable to go out into the yard.  Even ironing appears more attractive in that moment.  The weeds have run wild with the recent rains, the soil seems so depleted, and decisions...where should the tomatoes go this year, what if the cutworms chomp down my baby cucumbers, will next week be June gloom and is it too early for beans to germinate?  I am overwhelmed with the task before me and paralyzed into inaction.

I know better than this.  I am a student of life and learned a long time ago...when life's circumstances had paralyzed me and rendered me a crying woman assuming the fetal position...that I had the power to deal with what life throws at me.  I did not have to eat the whole elephant in one bite.  I did not need to be held captive to fear.  I did not have to be overwhelmed by the vision of an ideal I held in my mind.  All I had to do was make a choice to just "do the next directed thing"...and MOVE.  I would ask myself, "How can I know the next directed thing?" and a dear friend told me..."When you get up in the morning...the next directed thing is to make your bed."  Look at what is front of you and take that step and it will move you in the direction you want to go.

When I was 46 years old I was given the opportunity to return to school to earn an MBA.  I was working fulltime managing a department and staff, still had a couple of sons at home.  Where would I find the time and the energy to tackle such a project?  Do the next directed thing...apply.  Do the next directed thing...enroll in one class.  Three years later I was walking across the grounds of Loyola Marymount University wearing a Master's academic hood. 

Recently I stepped on the scale and shuddered..."When did that happen!"  My ideal, or at least closer-to-ideal, body is 15 pounds lighter.  My mind screamed..." How will I ever lose some weight."  Do the next directed thing...have an apple for dessert.  Do the next directed thing...step out the door and go for a walk.  I am now six pounds lighter...not my ideal, but I don't let my mind go there. I just take the next directed step.

So, what did I do today in the garden?  I weeded a patch, spread some compost and planted an eight-ball zucchini squash, a Japanese cucumber, four golden beets, and three Blue Lake bean plants. 

Pole Green beans

8 Ball Zucchini

I transplanted some tomato seedlings into larger pots

and I watered the rest of the garden.  Tomorrow I will take another step.