pumpkins, heart, and sunshine

My garden continues to gift me with metaphors and this week the vines have taken over. Squash
and pumpkin vines have run amuk around and over the top of the fence so that I can't even get in to weed
or reach my tomatoes without bruising or breaking these vines. However, the pumpkins are hanging in the
​sunshine, and the squash blossoms are gorgeous.

Sometimes when there is a lot going on in my life, such a s now, with family transitions, caring and arranging for my 
parents-in-law, and health issues; as a huge hearted caregiver my tendency is to want to pull out all of the weeds, make sure that everything is watered, that there aren't any predatory insects or animals, and that there is plenty of 
sunshine for all of those involved.

When I couldn't get in to my garden today I felt a sense of relief. I sat down on the bench, put my face in the sun,
and just sat. I sat and sat. It's a reminder to tend to my own soul and my own heart, and know that the nature of
​things bloom in their own time, and in their own way, sometimes best left undisturbed. 

I love this line by Joseph Campbell, "Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life
seems most challenging." 

Sometimes the opportunity is not what it would appear to be. It's not to be stronger by doing more or being different,
the opportunity might be to sit back and let nature take its course, to let the pumpkins bloom in the sunshine,
​and allow myself to enjoy the sunshine as well.