Aim for Dead Growth

With the exception of the holidays, I really hate winter.  It's cold.  In Atlanta everything becomes grey and trees drop their leaves... Our grass goes dormant... It's just ugly and miserable to be outside... Then along comes late February and we get teased between ice storms and snow storms about what is to come... In the past week the ornamental plums and magnolias started to bloom and green leaves began to sprout from the ground... can Spring finally be here?  Piedmont Park fills with people on days where it reaches 70'.  We all feel excitement for the potential of Winters breath to finally be gone again.  As I run through the streets I see the buds on the trees and fields starting to sprout with the bulbs planted so optimistically in the Fall.  It brings warmth to my heart and soul.  I AM happy.

I spent the morning purging the dead growth of the last 1.5 years.  It was the albatross that kept my soul dormant this past year.  I purged everything in my office and on my downstairs desk.  There is a distinct lack of clutter everywhere.  I went and shipped my boxes with a big grin on my face.  I AM free.

I spent this afternoon in my garden with the 70' sun on my face and shoulders.  I cleared a small section of the garden in the time I had.  In clearing all of winter's dead growth I found all the bulbs that are beginning to grow.  I felt pure joy in deadheading the winter away...  (See the stack of dead leaves in front of the newly mulched section of my garden above)

A new acquaintance said to me recently "I really dig your peaches"... and I laughed...  Today in my garden I kept finding myself singing

"You're the cutest thing that I ever did see
I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Oee baby, I'll sure show you a good time

'Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner
I'm a lover and I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun"...

I thought to myself in my moment of bliss...  I really dig my peaches too... I dig myself... I AM a good person... and it's so nice to have the time to reflect upon that.  My joie de vivre is returning and I AM feeling really good...  The dead growth around me has disappeared over the last two weeks... I AM feeling really optimistic about the future.  As I took away the dead growth of the garden I found my first daffodil of 2014 and grinned even larger.  Daffodils are Gods message to you that life is eternal and love is ever lasting.  Even when things are looking dismal all you have to do is sit, wait and pray/reflect on your life and Spring will return to your life again.

"Birds flying high you know how I feel

Sun in the sky you know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good"...