While checking on newly sprouted sweet peas in our big tunnel today, I was struck by a powerful metaphor for our current daily situation. Notes on our planting methods below-but first think about this for a minute. These little sweet peas are doing exactly what they were made to do. They are sprouting and singing their song! Never mind the fact that 15 feet above them it looks like the world is coming apart. They’re still marching forward, and I can too.
It hasn’t stopped being extremely windy since we had a lull to reskin the tunnel. We haven’t even been able to finish attaching all of the seams! We have been busy every second holding the farm together, trying to prep the fields, prepare for shipping, put out a little “fires…” but the new plastic is ripping in little places, and when I think about it I feel like my heart is sinking into my toes. This directly affects these tender sweet peas! It is LOUD in the tunnel. The sky is literally falling! But still they plod forward.
Certainly they don’t have the ability to think and worry like I do, so the metaphor breaks down-but it was such a striking picture to me. In many ways it feels like the world is coming down around me, but I still can take the next step forward and speak in kindness to my family. Do my daily chores. Spend time pouring my heart out to my Heavenly Father, asking him to take my anxiety and help me! I can focus on doing what’s right-the next best thing, even in the middle of the storm. ????
Growing note: We are shifting all of our blooms a little bit later this year, and I planted sweet peas directly into the tunnel in late February, right before a week of 25°-30° highs and powerful wind that ripped our tunnel. Still these hardy sweet peas survive, and I’ll be adding fencing for trellis this coming week. I expect blooms in June, and because our nights stay so cool through the summer, I should be able to have rolling blooms through frost in the fall. These are our cool color blend mix of Triple Wren long-stem sweet peas. We sell them in our online store in the fall, and grow them ourselves. They’re my favorite!????????