A note for anyone who is not in exactly the place they thought they would be
I’m writing to you today after finishing breakfast. My plate is clean, my mouth is burning, and I’m sweating. I don’t think I need medical services or anything, but only because this is becoming a regular post-meal state for me. I’m kind of used to it. I’m having this reaction because of the home-grown hot peppers I chopped and put into my omelet.
Most people don’t know that I am an avid hot-pepper gardner. I have multiple strains of hot peppers in my garden with the best known type being the jalapeno. I say it’s best known because every other type of pepper in my garden was given to me by a neighbor who received them from someone else, and no one has any idea what types of peppers they actually are. This blind date approach to gardening made the first few weeks of harvest kind of a Russian roulette situation. I cooked each pepper separately and then nibbled the tiniest pieces possible while praying.
I take pepper safety very seriously. I have even come up with a safe word so my family can know when I’m in trouble. My safe word is “piccolo” and the correct response to hearing this is to stop what you’re doing immediately and bring me some milk and plain bread. I’ve only used my safe word once so far, and I don’t foresee any more surprises. I’ve now categorized all the pepper plants in my garden using my own taxonomy.
The types of peppers I’m growing right now include: Jalapeno, Like Jalapeno but Red, Safe for the Kids, Not if you Want to Kiss your Wife, Don’t Eat if Traveling, and Safe Word.
I first knew I wanted a pepper garden when all of the other plants in my garden died. It’s been a busy summer for me, and July in South Carolina was hotter than Safe Word. At some point, every other plant I’d put out to produce nutritious food for the family (and to possibly support us if and when society collapses) wilted and gave up. But not the peppers. Peppers don’t quit, and that’s one thing I like about them.
Until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t a big fan of peppers. I wasn’t opposed to them or anything, but they weren’t on my list of go-to fruit. Then, when I found that they were what I was to be surrounded with, I decided I would lean in.
When you think about it, I had a choice to make. I could feel disappointed about the garden I don’t have, I could focus on the possibility of a garden I might have in the future, or I could decide to be happy with the pepper garden I have today. I chose the latter. I chose to be happy with the thing I have.
As I think about my life, I have a lot of pepper gardens. I have the literal one, of course. I also have a collection of circumstances where things aren’t exactly what I planned or thought they would be. My career is not what I planned on having, my dog is quirky and strange, the cases I spend my time working on are not the ones I imagined in vet school, and the clients I see do not fit into any mold I can come up with. They are all pepper gardens.
At the end of the day, I think life is all about how you feel in your pepper garden. Are you disappointed that it’s not what you planned? Do you ignore the garden you have to fixate on what’s possible in the future? Or, do you lean in and decide that you are going to love your pepper garden?
