Coming Home and Healing in the Dirt

I just watched Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk called Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating. She shared her story about how difficult it was to create bodies of work after her huge “Eat, Pray, Love” success. She spoke about the importance of failure and of finding your way back ‘home’. She defined her writing as ‘home’. What is your ‘home’?

Early that day, my mother announced that she would be returning to England for her brother’s funeral this weekend. She had just sold a house in record time and felt her “decks were cleared”. We both agreed this was a sure sign from the universe. She is returning home.

Anticipating the difficult days ahead she noted how she plans to weed in her late brother’s English gardens to keep busy. I paused at her brilliance. My mother and I share a passion for gardening and a deep connection to the experience of digging in the dirt. I realized right then and there that, for my mom, gardening is the ‘home’ that Elizabeth Gilbert was talking about in her TED talk.

Coming ‘home’ is finding that place that provides a place of healing; a therapeutic haven. Gardening is my home. What is yours?