When Life Hands You Lemons . . . Plant A Garden!
By Cindy Naas
Every night on the news, you have been watching your retirement accounts dwindle.
You have friends and maybe even family members who’ve lost their jobs.
You think to yourself that things are certainly bad, but at least you still have your job.
You keep telling yourself that your job is safe, that your industry is close to being recession-proof, and you try not to think too much about the possibilities.
And then it happens. You get called in to your boss’s office, and no one is smiling. You’ve just been laid off, nothing personal, just the tough economic situation etc. It takes roughly thirty seconds for life as you know it to change completely. So, what do you do next?
This happened to a close family member recently, and watching him struggle with the anger and grief and depression has been painful for all of us. I always turn to my garden in times of stress, as I find that just being outside a little more, even in the winter, makes me feel a whole lot calmer and more centered.
Then Reggie, owner of UGC, sent me a fabulous article about what to do when facing sudden unemployment, and he recommended the obvious: when your whole world gets turned upside down, the best thing you can possibly do is to plant a garden.
Starting Over
There are many battles a recently unemployed person has to fight, and depression is one of the big ones. Staying near the phone all the time and checking email for job openings can become overwhelming without another activity to distract from the awful situation, and growing a new garden is a positive way to get out of the house even for a short time every day.
It’s far too easy to sink into the couch, grab the remote control and try to tune everything else out with a good movie, but being responsible for a new plant, planning what to grow and anticipating the eventual harvest is a healthy alternative to moping.
One Step At A Time
Even the process of planning the new garden can be helpful. When going through times of crisis, a person needs to be able to set goals, even small ones, and then see progress toward reaching those goals. You might not find that perfect job the week after being let go, but you can buy a pot, some soil and a few seeds and have a mini salad garden growing in your dining room in just hours. You can’t will the phone to ring even by staring at it for three hours at a time, but you can see new growth in your seedlings from one day to the next.
Remembrances Of Things Past
Growing something makes us focus forward. Looking ahead toward the future is much more positive than staring sadly over our shoulders, and growing something is the perfect way to focus on the next day, then the next. The simple acts of weeding, watering and measuring progress will remind a person that nothing happens overnight, but also that nothing ever stays the same. Keeping focused on a happier future makes the present much easier to deal with.
Moving On
Finally, it’s here- the big day you’ve been waiting for. Your first promising job interview. You are great at what you do, were at the top of your game in your previous job, and there’s nothing holding you back. Is there? After all, when hiring a new employee, who’s more likely to get the job- a person who looks tired and nervous, beaten down by life, or someone who walks into that interview with calm confidence and a firm handshake?
Do something wonderful for yourself, and also, for the world, by planting and tending to your garden while you work out what to do next. And, when that call comes and the interview happens, smile, look your prospective employer in the eye and say,”Let me tell you about my garden!”.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
My experience leads me to agree with this. Gardening certainly has changed the course of my life…for the positive. I always feel that working outdoors somehow puts life in perspective.
–GartenGrl