Hardening Off
They say that natural laws are a reflection of spiritual laws. They say that if you don’t know the answer look to nature..
I don’t even know what I am talking about but I do know this: At the beginning of every summer I went to the local nursery and bought tomato plants to put in my garden. After three straight summers of not a single tomato plant taking root and basically dying of exposure, I decided to try something different.
Sure I was pissed that I wasted the money on them and I was even more pissed that they died. I mean, honestly I bought the best variety.. they “should” grow, right? Ultimately though.. my tomato judgment was fruitless.. (no pun) lol
In fact, one winter I started all of my flowers and vegetables in the basement under grow lights. I had no idea how to do this initially but took advantage of my obsessive personality to read every book the library had to offer and ultimately immerse myself into the project 100%. Yeah.. I’m a riot.
I soon found out why my poor nursery tomato plants had never made it. They had been raised in a protective environment that was much like a mother’s womb. Since I had adopted my plants in the infant stage, I prematurely expected them to withstand the harsh elements of the prairie… strong wind and hot sun.
The season I put in the time, effort and great care required to grow my own garden from scratch resulted in the most fruitful harvest ever. The most notable thing I did differently was to harden them off.
It was painstaking.. and sometimes I questioned why the hell I was doing it, but every day I carried all of the flats of my fragile infant tomato plants outside for a few hours. First I put them in the shade, then slowly day after day I left them out for a longer period of time and I gradually moved them to an area that had full sun exposure, and full wind exposure.
Exposure/ protection. Exosure/protection. It was in this hardening off period that they built up resilience.
When the day came that I transplanted them, they were well prepared to face whatever challenges came their way. They took root of their new surrounding and not only survived, but thrived.
That’s what I am doing now. I am hardening myself off. I can’t expect myself to go from full-blown emotional eating to never emotionally eating again. I mean I can.. and I have. I can expect it, but ultimately it results much like my first three season’s crops of tomatoes: Completely unprepared to deal with the harsh elements… and fruitless.
This is the black or white; all or nothing thinking that simply doesn’t work. Maybe my nursery tomatoes felt invincible just hanging out in their brand new life in my garden, but that doesn’t mean they were. They were susceptible to the harsh winds all along.. and it wasn’t until the day the wind blew that they found out that they didn’t stand a chance.
Even though I would prefer to be one tough tomato plant that can endure any amount of sun and wind and not get burned, I am not. I need to be hardened off.. and hopefully Erik will allow me the painstaking time and space necessary to be able to successfully take root in my new life free of emotional eating.
….and God willing, when I do make it to the Olympia, I will already have won.
-UP