A slower life · Lesson in the Making
The choice to fill a garden bed
This morning I woke up and realized something…
I had a choice.
For nearly 15 years, my mornings were shaped by meetings, messages, deadlines, and someone else’s calendar. As life has shifted into a new season, my mornings now belong to the choices I make: waking up to garden, bake, spend time with my kids, or develop this new ownership of growing, cultivating, tending—and even answering my own emails. Today, one of my biggest decisions was whether to fill five-gallon buckets with dirt and build up a garden bed for carrots.
That might sound ordinary, but to me it felt extraordinary.
Time is a gift. We all spend it somewhere. Today I chose to spend mine caring for the place my family calls home.
Years ago my husband and I made another choice. We left our little condo near the mountain, a place that brought incredible friendships and ultimately brought us together. It served us well. But we wanted a little more room for our girls, for gardens, for chickens, and for the kind of life we hoped to build.
Looking back, I don’t believe things happened to me. I believe they happened for me. Every season prepared me for the next one.
Life will always give us choices. We don’t control everything that happens, but we do get to choose how we respond. And honestly, I haven’t always responded with grace. Sometimes fear or anxiety gets there first—that’s human, too. Learning to slow down, notice what’s happening, and try again is another lesson in the making.
Today my choice was simple: carry the buckets, fill the bed, and prepare the soil for carrots that should be ready by late fall—carrots I can leave in the ground until we need them.
I filled the garden bed.
Tomorrow it might be baking bread, planting flowers, or teaching my daughters something new.
Slow, intentional choices have a way of growing into a beautiful life. 🌿