Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. ~ Golda Meir

Tiny Happiness

A small post tonight, about a very simple idea, taking pleasure and gaining happiness from the small things. This time of year I post a lot of photos of what’s pictured above, and what I call, the tiny patio garden. Other years the garden is a little more complex, in addition to tomatoes I’ve often had basil, scallions, dill and mint that I grew. But this year, as I am trying to make a move out of my current life and situation, I decided to keep the tiny patio garden even a bit smaller than normal. So this year I only bought two tomato plants. However, one of my cherry tomato plants has hung on since last summer and is still producing, I ate the first tomato off it for the year today. It’s not producing a lot, but anything is a bonus. Additionally, in another two pots I have volunteers, plants coming up either from the roots of the plants from last year or seeds from a cherry tomato that dropped into the pot. I have a feeling both volunteers are cherry tomato plants. One is tiny, the other is doing incredibly well.

So, while the tiny patio garden is extra tiny this year, looks like I’ll still have a decent flow of homegrown tomatoes. In addition to my first cherry tomato, I also had my first regular tomato of the season that I wrote about this weekend. And so yes, I’ve already sliced, salted and ate my first homegrown tomato of the season.

While it’s not very big, or all that impressive, I take great joy and happiness from my tiny patio garden. It’s very soothing and a bit zen to be out on the deck and trimming the plants, pulling weeds and even watering them. Of course, there’s great joy in eating the tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes taste so much better than store bought tomatoes.

While I’m certainly all about big swings at happiness and adventure, we can’t do those things all the time. There need to be consistent and small bits of happiness that we wrap into our lives to make this existence as good as it can be, my tiny patio garden is certainly that for me. As they are annoyingly saying on social media these days, tiny patio garden tax below. Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane