There’s something cathartic about leafing through a seed catalogue on January 2nd.
Which is a sentence I’ve spent most of my life not expecting to write.
But at a time traditionally associated with post-festive, back-to-work, credit card comedown blues, this simple activity reminds me that it’s a time for hope, positivity and growth.
So I’ve absolutely over-indulged for the previous fortnight, thanks primarily to the generous hospitality of family. Sugar and fat in all their forms – baked in cakes, entwined in chocolate, soaked in a great deal of alcohol. Even the occasional piece of fruit. Sweetened, dried and drenched in syrup, naturally. I’m sad it’s over.
I’m also sad that it’s been so blinkin’ wet for the past month and doesn’t appear to be stopping. If you’re affected by flooding, then you have my sincerest best wishes. It must be terrible to endure.
But then the seed catalogue falls through my door on the first postal day of 2016 and it signals something more forward-looking.
I’m thinking about how I’ll bury tiny little dry specks into the damp soil and how, as the seasons pass and that soil warms, they’ll poke through and grow tall. And later in the year, hopefully, those seeds I planted earlier will bear delicious produce to enrich salads or pastas or pizzas.
I’m reminded that, however slowly, the mornings and the afternoons are already getting longer. That I am both happy and lucky. And that right now I am choosing the seeds I want to nurture.
May you enjoy a very Happy New Year.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What are you positive about for 2016?