March 26th will be the first anniversary of the beginning of the Walnuts and Pears blog and the first step for me in pursuing my dreams, my passion in life without fear. The past year has brought a lot of changes. It’s brought happiness as well as some tears, but I wouldn’t change any of it because it’s brought me to where I am today.
When I started Walnuts and Pears, my goal was to build the foundation for a future physical space for people to go to learn about all things related to living a centered, healthy, fulfilling life. That first block in the foundation was to be the Walnuts and Pears blog: a virtual place to share thoughts, observations and tidbits of information on landscaping, gardening, harvesting, cooking, eating, preserving, and healthy, mindful living. A place with purpose, passion, caring, love and respect for self, others and Mother Nature.
Over the past year, I’ve been reading other blogs and comparing what they are doing to what I’m doing. Most of the blogs I follow have very specific topics. I had originally set goals of sharing more tips and observations about gardening, landscaping, cooking, eating, preserving, harvesting and living a healthy, mindful life with the thought that all of these things tie together and in essence feed each other. Reflecting on the past year, I feel that I’ve shared more personal stuff than I had intended, but then things don’t always go as we plan. When things happen in life we need to adjust our sails, tack, drop anchor for a while or just lean back, let the wind blow through our hair and enjoy the ride. When I’ve shared personal stuff, the stuff that’s gone on in my life, I’ve tried to make the posts have some value to others, whether it’s acknowledging feelings, fears and failures, celebrating the successes or anything in between.
At Christmas time I was given the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho by a friend and co-worker. While I was excited to read it and kept it on my nightstand, I didn’t actually crack the cover until I started the 8 Weeks to a Better You! mini-challenge (4 Weeks to a Better You!). I decided that this would be a perfect time to read it because as part of the challenge I am supposed to read at least 15 minutes of uplifting reading or scripture each day. I couldn’t be more grateful for choosing to read The Alchemist. It’s really been perfect for me because while it’s not scripture, per se, it has helped make sense out of a lot of things in my life, particularly over the past year. In the story “the boy” is on a journey, following the path to his Personal Legend (his dreams). Throughout the story he is told to listen to his heart and follow the path to his dreams. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But is it? How many of us have really done that? It’s not that easy, or at least that what we tell ourselves. Have you ever noticed that if you really listen to your heart and do what you follow what you think you are meant to do without holding back, without fearing loss, that it feels right? It feels good. It’s like your heart, your head, God and the Universe all know you’re on the right path and reward you for it. But if we don’t listen to our heart, don’t follow our dreams, we can pretend to be happy, or be happy for a while and then start to question “What if I had done…?”. Following the path to our dreams doesn’t mean we won’t have challenges along the way. We will. But those challenges are there to help us gauge how committed we are to following the path to our Personal Legend. The challenges are tests and the only way we can fail these tests is to give up, give into fear or surrender our dreams to something that seems more achievable that’s right in front of us instead of pushing forward.
I can say that in the last year I’ve definitely had challenges. Some of them were really tough, heart wrenching, but I’ve gotten through them and looking back I can see that I was being tested. And during some of these tests I made decisions that I have no other way to explain why I did what I did than to say “it just felt right”. Something told me it was the right thing to do. So I’m learning that when I start to doubt where I’m headed or doubt the decisions I’ve made or get scared about my future, I now know that is just my heart fearing pain or failure or even fear of success. But if I trust in myself, my God and the Universe and keep my eyes forward I’ll be okay. I love what I’ve been doing. I love expressing myself through writing, art, and cooking. I love that I’ve been able to put new focus on my health and have had the strength to clear out old things in my life to make room for new possibilities. I love that I have been given this time in my life to follow the stars and trust in myself. I know that with each challenge I get through it makes me stronger and reinforces my commitment to my dreams.
So as I head into my second year of blogging, I look forward to continuing to share info on gardening and landscaping, and add more info on harvesting, cooking and preserving, and more info health and well-being and sustainable living and continue to share about my journey. Because, to me, that’s what life is about, sharing the good stuff as well as the challenges, about being authentic. And that’s what Walnuts and Pears is about, because we’re all on this journey together.
Until next time, I wish you peace, happiness and success in your pursuit of your Personal Legend.
Kate
Walnuts n Pears 