I have carried water daily to my newly planted raspberries for the past 2 and a half months. If it didn’t rain, I would fill my buckets and lovingly carry them across my yard, up the slope and past the rows of blueberries. Each day, it made me happy. I mean profoundly happy, somewhere deep in my soul I knew that I was walking a path that I was born to walk. It wasn’t just about the immediate joy that I got from assisting a plant to transition to its new home, it was also about an investment in my future. It was an investment in my children's future. The future of what would go into their mouths and feed their bodies. I loved watching them grow and would cheer for them as I watered them. I have always talked to my gardens and my houseplants and these raspberries were no exception.

On this particular afternoon I decided to sidedress the raspberry plants with compost. It was 98 degrees, the sun was shining, the air was thick and the sweat was running down my elbows as I loaded the compost and pushed the wheelbarrow up the slope towards the rows of raspberries.

As I shoveled the compost out of the wheelbarrow and around the raspberries I got thinking. I truly loved caring for these raspberries. What if……. what if I cared for myself just as well as I cared for these raspberries. What if I treated myself with this kind of gentleness. What if giving myself what I needed wasn’t an option, it was required to fit into my day. What if I put that kind of love and energy into myself. What if I encouraged my own growth the way I encouraged theirs?

Now…….. what if I encouraged every other human I know with this same level of love and intensity. And, what if they just happened to encourage me back.