Last year I grew basil, thyme, stevia, and tomato. It was my first foray into the home garden scene. This year, I grew basil, thyme, mint, tomato, and peppers. The herbs and tomato plants have done well – the peppers, I planted using seeds from peppers I had bought. So my first peppers are only now appearing. Until recently, I always joked that I had a brown thumb – as in – dead leaf brown – not green like life. I almost always kill my plants but, I wanted to grow something, eat something I had raised from the ground myself and, this year, we’ve all really enjoyed eating the actual fruits of our labor.

This weekend, I was listening to a sermon online. It’s what I do when I’m not feeling well and miss church. The concept that stuck with me the most was that my future is not dependent on my past. More specifically, nothing I lost is anything I need for the future God has for me. In other words, whatever I still have is everything God knows I need to do what He wants me to do.

It was the most comforting realization. I have spent a lot of time thinking about, itemizing, and articulating all of the things I have lost since my accident. I am stymied continuously by the things I can no longer do. But – maybe, like Lot’s wife, looking back will stop me in my tracks and prevent me from ever moving ahead. A pillar of salt.
Nothing I lost is anything I need for the future.

I had never grown vegetables and herbs in a garden (or, more accurately, a collection of pots) before my accident, but nothing I lost kept me from growing them.
Here’s to fresh starts and new beginnings – to taking what’s left and using that – to growing where you are.