I've always thought we want to be like the people we admire most, and for me it would be my grandmother, after whom my 9 year old daughter is named. My grandmother was a woman of
very limited financial and academic means, learning to read at the same time I did: she was 56 and I was 6 years old and in first grade.
My grandmother measured happiness and success in very simple, yet profound sayings: wealth is what you value and you never know where your blessings are going to come from. If you value a watering can, then that's part of your wealth. If you walk through life expecting blessings, then you wake up each day to give thanks in advance for those blessings.
These past few weeks of Covid 19 have shown us all how different our world can be, and how much we have to do without in the hopes of staying healthy. Before self-distancing became the norm, life was comfortably busy and at times hectic.
Business was really good, which allowed me to work with even more artisan families in Mexico. Sometimes I'd get up at 4:00 am to have enough time to finish all my work by 3:30 when my daughter got out of school. We had plans to travel to Cancun for Spring break, then in December travel to Greece for my 50th birthday. In mid March the rug was pulled from under us all. We began to homeschool our daughter, which seemed fun at first, until we realized school would be held remotely for the remainder of the school year. I've always been a numbers person, but teaching math to a strong-headed 9 year old takes the patience of a saint. It's been difficult, but now I know I can do it. The Force IS with me, and I'm thankful.
My grandmother was big into gardening. In fact, one of my earliest memories is one where I'm about 3 years old, walking barefoot on the soil careful not to step on flowers, directed by my grandmother's watchful eye so I could pick peppermint to make tea. My grandmother grew fruits and vegetables that we all enjoyed.
I've always wanted to have a garden, to grow my own salads, but frankly, it's always been a dream somewhere in the horizon: when I retire, when my daughter goes off to college. Now, because I'm working from home and my daughter is not in school, I'm finally giving myself the time and space to garden and not feel guilty because there's always something else I should be doing. And that is a blessing brought by Covid 19 that I didn't see coming.
These days cooking with my daughter and letting her surprise me with her culinary imagination (can we bake blueberries into the mac and cheese to add color and texture?) is my main event. She has learned which herbs is basil, parsley, and cilantro. I can't wait to harvest tomatoes from our 7 plants, all of which have been given superhero names by my daughter.
Stay healthy and remember "You never know where your blessings are going to come from."