Virgo Dirt

I am a happy woman.  I have been outside digging, raking leaves and hauling stuff away for several hours the last couple of days.  I am energized, relaxed, excited about my visions for the spring.  My body is feeling stronger and I do not resent the work that awaits me when I come back in to my office.     

How can it be so simple?  Why didn't I do this ages ago?  Why do we resist when that little voice is saying "I know what you need.  Just listen".  

I notice that much of the comfort of this work for me is in the smell.  Dirt is nectar for my soul.  Perhaps it's because I am a Virgo (earth sign) with five planets in Virgo.  But I also think it has to do with my childhood.  I grew up in the country in upstate New York.  My entire childhood played out in the acres that surrounded us - five that my parents owned and many more that were undeveloped adjacent to our property.  My first profound spiritual experience occurred while lying in a field of violets in the spring.  I felt the certainty of my connection to God/Life/Love, and I have carried it with me ever since.  Fall was spent raking leaves and leaping into the piles; winter days found us sledding down the hill by the barn; we passed the summer evenings playing kickball on freshly mown grass and the days splashing around in the creek down the hill.  I spent hours reading in a treehouse up in a 150 year old elm and marveled at the return of the irises every April.   My favorite place to lay and dream was under the grape arbor - it was dark and cool and secret and dripping with huge, succulent, purple grapes. 

My life choices brought me to this place - a rectangle of land with a blue house in the middle of a very large city in Texas.  We chose property that is still a bit wild and untamed.  There are huge live oak trees and too much bamboo and overgrown corners that need attention.  The butterflies love it, a family of Great Horned Owls chose to teach their babies to fly here a few years ago, all the cats in the hood hang out in our garden (the coolest litter box around), and the child explorer/dreamer in me is waking up by spending time out there - just messing around without a plan.    

So today I bought a grape vine at Home Depot to plant this spring.  I think I'll create another place to lay and dream.