The Great Lavender Adventure

It always amazes me how gardening is just like life.  Today I spent the morning cutting back my lavender plants. I cut the stems and buds and bundled them in hopes of making a dried lavender sachet as a gift for everyone who comes to the baby shower I am hosting for my daughter.

 

In order to get the full scent of the lavender bud you must cut the beautiful, purple lavender flowers while they are in full bloom. So it’s a bit of a quandary, because you also want to enjoy them in your garden, admiring the beauty and smelling them in full bloom. About half my lavender plants were already spent, no more perfect purple flowers to cut and dry for further use, just the knowledge that I’ve enjoyed their blooms and smells for the last month, the rest of the plants I cut for the sachets.

 

In life we have to make similar tough decisions.  It was hard for me to cut the rest of the plants that were in full bloom, but if I didn’t I wouldn’t have any sachets to share with friends and family, a token of my personal joy which I get to live with every day.

 

During the cutting process, the bees were swarming around me trying to get to every last flower before I cut it.  Hundreds of them buzzing and moving in the lavender plants, but not a one stinging me.  Maybe they accept the circle of life better than humans do.  We have to make hard choices every day, stay at home with our kids full time and enjoy the pleasures and challenges of being a stay at home mom, while possibly leaving a booming career we love and might never get back to. On the other hand we can work out of the home full time and feel that we miss the everyday surprises our children provide, bringing up the old debate quality time vs. quantity time.

 

Some of us are lucky enough to have that choice. For some there is no choice, but in either case we receive different gifts.   I don’t know a single woman who feels like she is 100% satisfied with her choices all of the time, but what I remembered today in my lavender adventure is this: Somehow I always get to have the best of both.  Some plants I have smelled and enjoyed for many weeks now, and some I had to cut down in their prime for the knowledge that they will serve me later in a different way.  Bringing joy and delicious smelling memories to me and my loved ones.

 

As it is with life and motherhood, our gifts come in different packages.  Different wrapping.  However, if we look hard enough they are always there for us to find.

 

Enjoy a beautiful day and discover as many gifts as you can!