Winter Awakening and an Assortment of Seeds

Winter snow visited our home and garden this week and I'm happy that it didn't stay for very long because it was really an unexpected event and we weren't prepared for guests. 

It snowed a lot on Tuesday night (January 17th, 2012), and my excitement was remarkable—though I know not why—except to say that up until just last month I would not have been able to stay outside in such cold temperatures for that long. So maybe I do know the reason why, but it is such a personal reason, having more to do with my illness, that I feel I must explain.

As I write this, the movie Awakenings (1990) is playing on the television. Based on the British neurologist Oliver Sacks's memoir Awakenings (1973) it's a movie about a group of patients who awaken from their catatonic states after being given an experimental treatment in 1969, and over time, the drug that they're given stops being effective, and they return to their catatonia.

The mother of one of the patients describes never having asked, when her son was born, "Why? Why was my son born healthy?" But after his illness sets in later, she remarks to the doctors that she hasn't stopped asking, "Why? Why is my son unhealthy? Why?" Then she must watch as her son slowly returns to being catatonic again, unable to communicate at all, after having had him back so briefly.

Chronic illness follows this cycle, and it is for this reason that I garden and grow seeds, finding in their annual return and growth the false confidence that I need, and an additional natural comfort when I need it. Gardening keeps me far away from the Why? questions, and instead, the activity leaves me suspended in a healthy state of awe and speechlessness.

For the last few weeks I've felt alive again, and I've been afraid to note that here on my blog.

One of the reasons why is that I am afraid it won't last for very long. I have lived with many chemical windows both opening and closing much like the patients in the film, though not nearly so dramatically, and I live with the ongoing dread that I will run out of options. For the last few weeks I have been doing much better than I have in about 5 years and it scares me. I must admit too that I have been living, and that means I've not been here so much, and that I've been having fun and I've been enjoying the winter and time spent with my husband.

Taking pictures of the snow at 11pm was just the kind of activity I needed. It filled me with a funny kind of joy and I looked around at the dark homes of our neighbors and wondered why they weren't out there too—just as excited as I was at that hour—and I realized then that my mood had more to do with my most recent "awakening"than anything else. These are often the joyful moments we spend by ourselves and that's alright I suppose, I just hope that all of you remember to have them too.

So yesterday the snow melted, and while keeping warm, I finally began my last seed sorting session for the 2011 harvest. Maurice the cat felt like helping too so I let him spend some time with me on the floor while I sorted all of the paper bags and poured the seeds out onto paper plates.

All of the seeds are now out in the open and I am so happy that I am able to capture them all in one shot. This is only 1/8th or less of what I collected last year so this really is a big deal for me to be so near the end.

Some of these are from the wild and some are from gardens. How I figured them all out, when some had no plant ID at all, is still a mystery to me. If they're without a name I have no one to blame but myself.

I just cannot believe that the process is beginning again, since I feel as though I've just woken up a bit myself, and although I am a bit terrified that this new medication may fail me, the garden must grow on and so must I.