I untangled the morning glory from dill plant and moved the dill —metaphor for life

i’ve sprayed my berry plant with a gentle mist of diluted orange clove water follow by diluted castille mist to keep pest away. It worked.

i‘ve been noticing a mockingbird landing on the balcony quite often. im think they may be eyeing the berries. i need to get a net to protect them as the grow

Write to Happiness

There’s been a slow boiling sadness brewing beneath the surface. I try to chase it, turnover it, examine it thinking maybe I can find the source. So, then what? I don’t, I think if I know what caused it then I can fix it. Glass half full

Then I start the comparison thing. Why me? Why can’t I just BE happy?

Do some folks come with built in systems already tuned to happy. You know like the folks who wake up happy and smiling --that’s not me. I really don’t want to talk to anyone when I wake up. I need to ease into my day slowly and gradually. I’m not even hungry until I have been up and moving about for a couple of hours. I do like a nice caffeine-boost to break my fast. It can be coffee or tea. I want something warm and uplifting.

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Comparison, I know it is never a good thing. You can always find something or someone better and someone worse. We all tend to focus on those things and people who are better. That doesn’t do a lot for self-esteem now does it. There is an upside to it though, it can keep you striving to do or be better. That’s a good thing. Downside, it keeps you feeling less than, never measuring up.

See that’s me in my head, a place where I stay too much sometimes. Overthinking rather than just being –just living. That’s me sometimes and it is what it is. I have developed coping mechanisms to lift my mood, and shift my focus.

I find things to do that bring me joy. Things like crafting, garden or writing sometimes it’s making bread sometimes it’s making soap. I’ve had periods where I enjoyed making jewelry with natural gemstones. I’ve dabbled in making my own handmade paper. I’ve been known to sew or crochet as well. I’ve taught classes in some of these arts and shared them with my granddaughter too.

This spring I decided to create a balcony garden as my growing joy project. It was a way for me to be intentional about cultivating and maintaining joy. I have always had a few house plants. The state of health of my plants are usually a pretty good reflection of my mental state.

My Growing Joy Garden has been a true joy with ups and downs but ultimately yielding a lush green botanical delight that dances and sways in sweet rhythm with the rain and wind. That’s my living room view of my balcony. It is plush with Basil, Genovia and Thai variety. They exploded and are thriving. What didn’t make it, cucumbers? I will start them later next year because the seeds took off and sprouted so quickly, I felt compelled to transplant them and move them outside, but we still had too frost to conquer. I think I can do better and have some success next year –hopefulness.

My lettuce did so-so – maybe it was the variety which was loose leaf. I think I will try a more compact, bunch variety next time. Maybe now, late summer but if successful I can bring them inside and continue through the winter. I have harvested it a few times but not enough to make a nice salad without adding other green vegetables store bought or homegrown herbs like basil.

The beets are still hanging in there after repositioning multiple times to stop the rain from washing it out and letting it get enough sun. Carrots are doing the same, great green tops but not much underneath –I recently pulled one to test. I know I planted them too closely and will correct that next year, I picked a great spot for them and will make sure not to change that.

I have lots of pepper plants some getting quite large. I transplanted them a couple of times too and finally found the right container (grow bag) and spacing. I do hope for at least a couple of them to bear fruit (peppers). I love to cook with them.

I’ve been pollinator watching and have spotted a beautiful hummingbird visiting a couple of times. I was able to get a quick shot the first time but was too engaged in conversation on the phone to capture it the next time. And this last time it was at the very last minute as it was leaving it’s nectar source.

And that keeps me hopeful –I house the nectar source. I created it, cultivated it intentionally to draw them. My zinnias are gorgeous and are continuing to bloom.

The Victorian meaning of zinnia are thoughts of an absent friend —for me the ancestors especially my mom. I have seen a variety of butterflies floating abouts.

That’s a success. No matter what else happens in this garden. If I’m only able to grow herbs and flowers successfully. That’s a win because this creates an opportunity for some great nature photos for me.

I have had a great deal of success with growing micro sprouts. That’s something --just as nutritious as lettuce or other greens, more if you believe the hype. I choose to.

I’m still not giving up on my kale seedlings and my healthy bunch of cilantro –I continue to harvest it. The strawberry plant which was to be my fruitful crown jewel is suffering from too rain. Yes, we’ve had areas that suffered from years of drought, so this rainy season has been a blessing.

Not so much for me a fledging container gardener. I’ve learned to check the weather and move the containers accordingly to prevent too much water logging or rain wash off –depleting the soil depth. My lavender plant fall prey to water-log. Anyway the strawberry plant continues to bloom and steadily produces berries. The problem also affected by strawberry plant too; it became soggy just before they got nice and ripe.

I just recently moved it and added soil and a wee bit of fertilizer for them and the other plants during the few rain free days we had this week. I still feel hopeful that we will be able to harvest a good bunch maybe next month as the rain is diminishing. I say we because my granddaughter has only be wowed by the strawberry plant. I do want her to have this memory of growing her own food.

Speaking of growing your own food, I have a childhood filled with those memories. I grew up on a farm and in a small southern rural town. Most of my best memories involve being out in or around nature. So, to be able to bring a little of that to my new dwelling place in the city brings me joy and a few fresh herbs.

Beyond the herbal success, I have managed to cultivate and grow two beautiful containers of morning glories. They are glorious in the bright morning sunlight. It looks like each bloom contains it’s very own sun that beams it’s beauty far and wide —quite literally. Morning glories are creepers and climbers which means they will wander and spread around any nearby surfaces. I have placed them on the north and south ends of the balcony.

They can create beautiful flowery archways like the one in my mom’s garden. So naturally I had to bring them to my little garrden. Everything I know about gardening especially flowers comes from my ancestors —mom. She had two green hands that grew everything from fruit trees to snap peas sprinkled with a healthy dose of roses.

Writing about my garden project lifts my spirits. It allows me to reflect on the simple joy of growing things from scratch. That earthy connection with mother nature as you dig in the dirt. Yes, I dig in, often with my hands because I love the feel of dirt and the smell of rich dirt after a good rain.

I just cut and gathered a small bunch of Zinnias to bring inside. This is also good pruning practice to help it continue growing and producing—a double win. And my little experimental sweet potato project to produce slips for planting is taking off like the wind. Slips are growing before my very eyes it seems — it’s happening so fast.

May you always find the courage to plant hope, the patience to nurture it, and the joy to celebrate every bloom.
Until our next garden visit...
🌿 Dee

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After I decided to grow my balcony garden, I knew I wanted herbs but thought I might stretch my skills with some fruit. Strawberries seemed the perfect choice. Afterall, Tennessee is known for it’s great strawberry farms. Growing up we used to have a pretty big Strawberry Festival in my home county. It’s funny that my family were big farmers and gardners but I never remember any of them actually growing strawberries. I wondered why.

When I first ordered the strawberry seedlings, I wasn’t sure they’d bare fruit. Just a few small plants tucked into a shipping box, carrying more promise than fruit.

I carefully repotted them, gave them fresh soil, water, and a place in the balcony garden. Then came the waiting.

Every day I checked on them. A little water. A little attention. A little hope. My granddaughter was pretty excited about them too.

At first, the changes were almost too small to notice. A new leaf here. A little more growth there. Nothing dramatic—just the quiet work of becoming.

And then one morning, I looked closer.

First there were tiny white blooms that began to pop out. Then the net thing I noticed were these tiny green strawberry buds starting to pop out everywhere.

Suddenly, all those small acts of care had become visible.

The strawberries reminded me of something I often forget: growth is happening even when we can’t see it. Beneath the soil, beneath the surface, life is gathering strength.

Now, each new bud feels like a tiny celebration. A reminder that good things take time. That tending matters. That patience has its rewards.

What began as a few seedlings has become one of my favorite corners of the balcony garden—a living lesson in hope, persistence, and the joy of watching something grow.

Sometimes the sweetest things begin with simply showing up and caring for what you’ve planted.

So many lifetime memories of strawberries, starting with my birthmark which I called my “strawberry.” All those summers eating strawberry shortcakes sometimes with homemade angel cake and sometimes the plentiful cheap cake cups sold in the grocery store. One of my all time favorite things was my mom’s homemade ice cream and on special occassions she made strawberry or peach cream —delicious.

This “Growing Joy” Journey is finally yielding some beautiful tasty fruit. The zinnias are also finally starting to bloom and I can hardly wait for the beautiful pollinators to flock to them. I look forward to all the beautiful photos I will snap this fall.

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Thanks for joining me on my “Growing Joy” Journey

Stay tuned for more updates and keep finding ways to cultivate and maintain JOY!

~Dee

Over the past few weeks, the morning glories have continued their beautiful unfolding — opening wide to greet the day, then curling back inward by evening like they’re protecting a secret. The pink periwinkle is thriving beside the rosemary that’s managed to survive. The purple salvia, adds soft color and movement to the space in front of the hanging basket of snappeas starting to spit forth tiny little pods. The herbs are stretching taller too — dill, coriander, and lavender filling the air with that grounding reminder that nature heals us in ways we often forget to notice.

And then there are the strawberries.

Tiny white blooms appeared almost overnight, delicate but determined, carrying the promise of fruit still to come. Nearby, tucked carefully into the hanging basket, the first little snowpea began to emerge. A small thing, maybe. But hope often arrives in small things.

The most meaningful moment came unexpectedly.

A cardinal landed on the balcony railing and stayed for quite a while, quietly observing the garden like an honored guest inspecting the progress of this joy project. It felt spiritual. Sacred even. It immediately brought back memories of birdwatching with my mom — those quiet moments of stillness and wonder we shared together.

Some people believe cardinals are messengers.

I believe that too.

Maybe not always in a literal sense, but in the way nature has a way of reaching us exactly when we need it. A reminder. A presence. A whisper that love remains. That beauty remains within us and all around us in nature. Hope remains.

In a world constantly demanding urgency, productivity, and survival, tending something living can become an act of resistance. A form of self-care. A declaration that stillness, softness still matters.

This garden is not perfect.
Neither am I.

But every bloom feels like proof that joy can still grow here.

And maybe that’s enough.

~ Dee 🫶🏽

The balcony garden starting to flourish, the strawberries are beginning to bloom, the morning glories are stretching higher each day with lots of blooms, and the snow peas are finally climbing and reaching for the light and starting to spit forth pods.

I started with seeds, soil, and intention, now things are slowly coming into color — possibility buds.

I’ve been reminded that growth rarely happens all at once. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it’s slow enough to miss if you aren’t paying attention. But then one morning, there’s a flower where there wasn’t one before.

In the middle of everything happening in the world, tending this little garden has become a daily reminder that joy still deserves our attention too.

Small things. Grow joy. 🌿

~Dee

I’m old enough to know that this fight has been an ongoing marathon for black folks. In an effort to be most effective for the long haul, I decided to recalibrate my efforts. I’ve spent years talking about the importance of being civically engaged and well informed. Feel like I’ve beat that dead horse long enough. Those that get it will continue to do the work. For those that don’t, it’s not my ministry.

I’m pivoting my focus from the information, civic engagement aspect to vital importance of selfcare and mental health in the process of doing this work. I will lead by example, leaning into Intentional Joy. Why? Because social justice work is hardwork and it’s easy to become overwhelmed and exhausted from the aggressive daily diluge spewing forth in this political climate.

The Information War that we find our self in can make finding realiable news sources more difficult. Of course this is by design —the goal of propaganda. The AI race has multiplied this exponentially. Now you have to discern if it’s real or AI. It can make your head spin. So now you have this mental exhaustion recurring just trying to stay informed.

I’m here to say, it’s not just you, even news junkies like myself are having difficulty. So what are we to do? Well we’re gonna figure that out together. I don’t have all the answers but I am always willing to search for them and experiment. I’m also a fairly good student of history and know that there are lots of lessons we can learn from it.

I think of my enslaved ancestors yearning and fighting to be free. I think of how long it took. I think of my share cropping grandfather who died as he rose for breakfast to head out for another's days work in the field after having putting in a full days back-breaking work the day before. I think about how they all went about their lives in bondage and servitude yet managed to live their lives and carve out moments of joy, finding opportunities for celebration and hope for the future despite their circumstances. I want to call in that kind of stamina and fortitude. No matter how dark it gets to find sources of light, of encouragement and hopefulness.

The rising autocrats here and abroad want to keep us afraid, poor, sick and hopeless. I will not surrender my peace or my joy to tyrants. I am leaning into Intentional Joy.

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Can you think of things that bring you joy? Things that bring me joy are pretty simple like nature, photography, crafting and sharing joyful moments with family and friends. My love of nature comes from growing up in the the rural south, in the country amongst gardeners and farmers. Of course there are other things such as music, dancing a good book or movie. I’m drawn to creativity —artists and artistry of all sorts.

Art is an expression of our lived experience it can give us deeper insight and awareness. It offers opportunity for reflection and new ways to see things, an examination of sorts. According to the Mayo Clinic, creative arts can bring joy and help distract from pain and anxiety. The act of creating can also have an incredibly positive effect on the person doing it.

Authoritarianism feeds on hate, despair and exhaustion. Art, dance, music, nature’s beauty, gardens, celebrations of life—these are the things that sustain people for the long struggle. Joy is not separate from resistance; it can and must be part of it.

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Sources:

Being creative is critical, experts say—especially in hard times

How Creativity Can Heal Your Life in Troubled Times

Ten Ways to Stay Creative During Stressful Times

Nine lessons for fighting authoritarianism using art in an age of resistance

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My life has been filled with elders cultivating the earth. Every place we lived my mom had a garden, sometimes it was only flowers but in the places where there was any land space she grew vegetables and flowers.

She loved roses and there were always a variety of rose bushes. They left some thorny memories from childhood with the inevitable occassional encounter with their thorns. Looking back on it, it’s a metaphor for my life. Like that time my mom was visibly upset (unsual for her even-keeled “no drama mama” manner); my daugther had beat her rose bush with a stick, Why? Because, “It Stuck Her.” Maybe a metaphor for her temperment.

Many childhood memories of my time with my ancestors center around them doing things like, sewing, cooking, gardening, or reading. How fortunate I was to have seen them engaging in these activities. These were just normal life skills, blessed they passed them on. Today many of those skills are lost. People pay others for them but I can do most of them—quite well if I say so myself. Well, all except for gardening that is, which why I decided to lean into more.

To be honest, I just was never that interested in gardening like I was other skillcrafts. We were enlisted to help with gardening, harvest and preservation stuff like canning. Now there were the summers when lawn care was mandatory for my siblings and I. Honestly, I didn’t like it much. Never got interested in gardening until I had my own home. I wanted a nice yard with some curb appeal. I grew flowers, fruit trees and even created a beautiful water garden from scratch, complete with fish (Koi and Goldfish) and water lilies.

My mom and grandmothers were skilled gardeners. More than just “green thumbs” you might say they had two “green” hands. We might not have had a lot of material things but good food was never in short supply. My family expressed their love through food. Like the time my grandmother mailed her famous pound cake to me while I was stationed in Germany for my birthday. It arrived in tact and taste.

I always consulted my mom for gardening advice and she loved sharing her vast knowledge. I think she was happy that I was developing a love of these skills. She was a big reader with tons of gardening books. She’d be pleased that I still remember and practice them actively. She would love my balcony garden project and no doubt offer some keen advice. Now I’ll have to learn it by trial and error.

My Balcony is coming to life filled with seedlings blooming into their fullness. I carry this ancestoral knowledge, hoping to pass it on as. I know they will help me navigate this burgeoning project. I pray it will be successful and can hardly wait to reap some of their bounty.

Everyday life is getting tougher and the political climate can be depressing. I choose to cultivate and maintain ”Intentional Joy” through it all. Lessons from the ancestors.

The cucumbers and snap peas are sprinting so I should be able to enjoy them first…

The morning glories have also taking off extremely well. They take me back to our backyard with the arch shaped trellis over the gate entrance brimming with them. I have lots of pictures to remind me and fill me with joy

We have been working the land since we got to this country. Fingers crossed their lessons won’t be lost on my watch. Join me on this Intentional Joyful Journey.

You don’t need a perfect plan—just a place to begin. Bloom where you are planted.

My Friends…

Start where you are. Grow what you can. This is what tending to life looks like. Let’s not dispair over the political chaos being stirred or things beyond our control. Lean into “Intentional Joy!”

~Dee

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