One month later, I moved Rumi out of my bedroom because it was inconvenient sharing my space. I got tired of moving him to function and he didn’t look happy. Plants need to be around energy, so I moved him to the front of the house, which ironically is where he landed when I first brought him home.

I wasn’t sure I’d made the right choice to place all my intentions into the backyard this year, but recently, gazing out the window when the outdoor temp was 99° F, I was relieved not to be in the front yard watering plants. For most of my life I’ve been more concerned about the front of everything and how things looked on the surface. That mentality no longer serves me in this stage of life.

In this classroom called life the pieces of me that no longer fit are being discarded. They’re not being thrown into the lid of the puzzle box in hopes of completing the same puzzle. If you put together the puzzle of Barb today, there would be pieces missing, but are they missing, or do we see open spaces for new? Things that will nurture where we are, opposed to snapping into normality. Things I thought were important aren’t any longer, such as what the front of the house looks like when people see it.

The backyard I’m happy to report looks like a sanctuary honoring nature and it takes all of 5-minutes to water what’s out there. I’ve embraced that part of Daddy instilled in me and can call myself a plant person, but instead of taking care of plants, I keep them happy so they’ll take care of me and continue to teach me daily.

Living alone, we follow our gut a lot. There’s no one to run ideas by, or offer suggestions, so we make a move and wait for a sign.

On that warm day, I hooked up the circular sprinkler revealed here to let it water the weed that covers the ground instead of grass. It didn’t take long for the bare spots to turn into puddles and a female Cardinal arrived swooping through the spray of water and hopping from puddle to puddle. Maybe it’s not about caring for plants, but sticking as close to nature as possible, which the backyard offers.

It was while watching this one bird filled with so much happiness that I knew… I’d made the right choice.