45 minutes of hard work

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.  Hanna Rion

I worked in the garden this morning. I planted a raised bed of wild flowers and a raised bed of cutting flowers. Some of the flower seeds have to wait...the last day of frost is still three weeks away. My husband cleaned up the herb garden; it took him about 45 minutes of hard work. When he was done the before and after was pretty remarkable. What was once a mass of overgrown dried stalks and weeds was a tidy herb garden just starting to green up. And then underneath the twigs and branch and brush...grape hyacinth, chives, chocolate mint and the tender red starts of the peony bushes which I couldn't see before. Beautiful. I had avoided the herb garden cleanup because it looked like at least a half a day of work.

My first thought when I saw how good it looked in just a relatively short time of hard work: writing projects. Many I avoid because I'm afraid it will take so much time to get them together and then months go by and I have together to show. I wonder what's underneath all of those words if I just got into it and did just 45 minutes of hard work. That's not to say that all projects just need 45 minutes. But 45 minutes at a time? I might uncover something beautiful that I couldn't see before.

This week I'm going to tackle one of those projects. I haven't looked at my poetry manuscript since October but today inspired me. How would it look if I spent 45 minutes a day on it? Maybe not every day but a few days a week...What could you work on this week that you have neglected? What treasures will be illuminated if you spend just a little bit of time on them? Now get back to work!

Lovingly,
The Writing Nag

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