These last several weeks have been a whirlwind. My husband and I did a three week road trip to Chicago for two weddings and a reunion with my college roommates, then we traveled to Maryland to see Tim’s parents for Labor day, and then we headed back home for a couple nights before packing our bags for a long weekend at the beach with friends. At this point in our wedding season, a little getaway with no agenda was exactly what we needed. We’ve been going nonstop since April and it was wonderful to sit on the beach for a few days and think of nothing but the sound of the ocean waves.
Now it’s back to reality – catching up on editing and emails after being on the road for a month, trying to juggle work and rest, and desperately looking forward to our off season when we’ll have some time to reset and recoup our energy.
Our work takes us to some pretty extraordinary places, and for that I am eternally grateful. There are some days though, that I simply crave a slower pace and some time to breathe.
For me, our garden is becoming my place to slow down and breathe. Judging by its current ragged state from being neglected most of the summer, I can tell I’ve had little time to slow down lately. Our tomatoes are in a sad state, the tomatillos grew too big for their cages and toppled over onto the cucumber trellis in a wind storm, and the cucumbers were starved for sun (because of the tomatillos), so they’ve long since withered up. I typically post photos of our garden spoils over on Instagram all summer, but it’s been a sad year produce-wise, so I’ve kept those posts in check.
Early in the spring, before our wedding season got underway, we planted tiny little carrot seeds in our garden. We watered and we waited. In early summer the little green carrot fronds told us they were ready to be plucked from the ground. This was the first time we tried growing carrots, and we may have pulled them up a little early judging by how little they were. But they turned out sweet and tender and delicious anyway.
The chill of fall is already in the air this week in NC, but I may see if we can get one more carrot harvest this season. According to this planting guide that NC State published for our area, I’m pushing it to get those little carrot seeds in the ground before it gets too cold. We have this weekend off and we’ll actually be home to enjoy it – for the first time since early May. I do believe this weekend will be full of rest and slowing down from the frenzied pace we’ve had these past several months.
I would love to know – how do you make yourself slow down and rest? What works best for you? Do you play in the dirt, read a book, go for a walk, or something else?
