You have to nurture your values and dreams

 As a gardener and mother, I am a big fan of what nurturing does to enhance any situation. When we nurture, we help to create and build best possible scenarios in life. What does it mean to nurture?

Probably more than anything else in life, I love the action of caring for and encouraging the positive growth or development of someone or something. The process of growing, developing, and becoming is one I am committed to for myself and others. This commitment was a natural effort related to parenting and my career as an educator--that's what I did every day, and for the most part, I worked with a good team of like-minded parents and educators in this endeavor. We didn't always see things the same way, but our overall aim was the same--we wanted our children at home and at school to flourish in positive, life-enriching, and happy ways. 

Now, I am mostly committed to quieter, more solitary arenas of nurturing. As a caregiver for my parents, I find there isn't as strong of a team to work with. In many ways, I'm on my own. I find that lonely at times. Yet when I work in the garden, even though that is solitary too, I find that time peaceful and nurturing for me. Elder care unlike teaching or parenting doesn't match large, societal energy, support, or common paths. In many ways, our elders today are charting new paths since so many are living a lot longer than in years past, and there are not as many common, accessible systems to support that care which makes caring for our elderly loved ones much different than tending to young children at home or at school. In some ways, I think our society is at a loss when it comes to common values and efforts related to our oldest citizens. 

As with parenting and teaching, I love the aspect of nurturing that goes along with caring for my parents. I truly enjoy spending time with them, and when I help them in ways that make them happy, I'm happy too. I find the work positively challenging too as I consider what it is to age with good support and grace and as I reckon with the myriad of opinions, ideas, and perspectives related to positive love and care for the elderly. I think about my own longevity too--will I live a long life, and if I do, what will that be like for me? 

As we nurture that and those we love, we also nurture our values and dreams. Nurturing work in any sphere brings challenges with it, and those challenges make us think about our values and dreams. This is positive too. 

So today as I consider the value, interest, and love of nurturing I have, I am also thinking about the values and dreams I have related to this work. A positive consideration for a somewhat gray Sunday morning. Onward.