January 19th, 2011
The human mind is a funny thing. You can play tricks on it, even though your mind knows you're playing a trick. More simply put, you can divert your mind to thoughts of pleasant things to help blot out the unpleasant and your mind will go along with the deception.
Case in point is City Girl. On Christmas day, she laid in tremendous pain in the hospital with a broken hip. The ball of the femur (thigh) bone had totally pulled out of the hip socket. The pain was constant, excruciating. I mentioned that perhaps we should delay purchasing the building next door to our real estate office for a few months. "No," she replied. "Thinking about the building is all that's getting me through this pain." She was focusing on a positive to try to lessen a negative.
We all do the same thing, except when there isn't physical pain involved it's more appropriately called daydreaming.
I daydream often. In fact, I guess I actually daydream daily. My mind is taking itself to somewhere in the future that is pleasant, soothing, idyllic.
Right now, in mid-January of a colder than average South Jersey winter, my mind is working overtime. My mind is thinking of spring, of planting flowers and vegetables. This fantasy has been helped along by the half-dozen seed catalogs that have arrived since January 2nd. As I pour through the catalogs in my reading room (okay, bathroom) looking at tomato varieties, zucchini, spinach, hot pepper, and a host of other vegetable seeds, I envision these plants growing in my dozen raised beds behind the house. I decide what varieties I'll grow again this year and which new ones deserve a chance. I think of the mistakes I made last year, like not planting enough zucchini plants to get proper pollination. My zucchini crop was a total flop in 2010. My peppers arrived late and my spinach bolted too early. And I planted too many cucumber plants. I'll cut back on cukes this year.
With new flower beds to deal with as our real estate office expansion comes to fruition, I am debating which flowers to plant. I want continuity so that the two side-by-side properties will become one. Should I use impatiens, which always give a colorful display? No, they get stressed too much in the hot July and August days because they need some shade, not full sunlight. How about marigolds or asters or chrysanthemums? Maybe I should start with cold-hardy pansies in March, then replant summer flowers Memorial Weekend?
My mind wanders to envisioning myself in a tee shirt and jeans, on my knees, with flats of flowers ready to find their summer home. I think about all our customers and even folks walking down New Jersey Avenue who will be complimenting my choice of yellows, pinks, oranges, reds, whites and purples. The compliments bring satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment.
I feel good. Isn't daydreaming great?!!
- Mountain Man
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