When you come to accept that the present is all you have, you see the importance of living your dreams now instead of waiting for them to come true in the future.
This year, I started my own business. It’s not big. It’s not profitable. I don’t always know what I am doing. But I’ve made sales and have the proper documentation, so it’s real. Thyme & Place Herb Farm grows small-batch culinary and healing herbs for the immediate community in Naperville, IL. A 30 by 100-foot plot, nestled within the McDonald Farm. Naturally grown herbs with love.
I spend much of my free time working in the garden and processing the harvested herbs. It’s tiring. However, the work feels meaningful and brings me satisfaction. Looking out at my plot, I’m amazed that I’ve created it. The plants that fill the rows, some of them tall, some bushy, some topped with flowers, started from a couple handfuls of seeds that arrived in the mail this winter. It’s astounding. The garden now buzzes with bees, beetles, and butterflies. I feel like I am also providing a service to the ecosystem. My plants and I are a small but very real part of it.
For the last several years, I’ve wanted to have a big garden. I had thought about it as a future goal, something to create when I buy a home and land. Well, I have a big garden now. Of course, I have even bigger fantasies of what I could create over years and years on land I own, but I do feel like I am living my dream now. I am grateful beyond words.
Another dream is to pursue purposeful work and have that work support me financially. This fledgling business has ways to go to provide a living. It’s just the first step. I’m learning what works for me and what works for my customers.
There is so much I would like to do with my time here on earth. I often think about how I should be drawing, learning an instrument, and finally becoming fluent in Spanish. Those skills are important to me. I wish I had them. Yet, they are second tier. There is something about growing medicinal herbs and making products with them that I don’t want to leave for someone else to do. I want to get sticky in the hot sun as I weed, smell the aromas as I rack herbs to dry, and sip a steaming cup of tea brewed from plants I grew myself.
It’s been a humbling experience. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and have many inefficiencies. Thankfully, I’ve also had success and encouragement to keep going and keep improving.
