The healing power of dirt

Today was glorious. The sun was shining, spring was stretching its glowy arms and waking up, and I got to spend hours in the long-neglected, and very overrun garden area outside of my school. You see, my workday started with an all-staff meeting, kicking off our next three days of planning time to figure out logistics for our first in-person learning opportunities. My brain was slowly exploding (can something slowly explode?) while I heard waves of considerations, guidelines, survey responses, etc.  

After several hours of various versions of this meeting with my Early Childhood team, then just my teaching team, I finally couldn't suppress the urge to get out some energy and let all the information process.  Out to the garden I went. Oh it was the exact thing I needed; to be on my hands and knees in the dirt and weeds, with the worms and slugs. 

There are six garden beds in an area outside the side of my school building, and over the years they have been well-loved, but not always kept up, and certainly not so while we have been teaching from home. What fun it was to dig up rhinestones and sequins, left-behind treasures that other teachers had sprinkled in for their students, along with weeds and rotting roots. 

All the logistics and worry melted away as my mind wandered to the fun we would have with our small groups of students out there.  I dreamed of one garden bed dedicated just to digging- no stress over keeping delicate plants alive or organizing a seed schedule. Just. Digging. Because dirt is healing and how many of our kids have gotten to play out in the dirt in these last many months? I dreamed of a sensory garden bed - what can we smell, what interesting things can we grow for the touch and feel of them? What can we plant to harvest and taste? What sounds are in the garden? (We will make windchimes, surely). Do I know what fragrant herds we can tend? The possibilities of a five senses garden seem endless. Another
bed for construction vehicles, stones, plastic dinosaurs.... What will the kids want to bring out here? I'm just as eager to discover what the kiddos are interested in as pursuing my own garden dreams. 

Oh, what a treat today to be in that space and move past logistics and laptop screens...

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ”
Margaret Atwood