A Garden Day Memoir:

I got up at the crack of dawn on the weekends just to realize that when it’s me against Las Vegas heat in my backyard? The heat always wins!

But, of course, I kept pushing until I physically couldn’t go on. It was toward the end of the summer, and it was still darn hot.

Just hot — and dry. 🌄 It’s the same heat as when I bake and open the oven door 🥵, stick my head inside a little to take the cookie sheet out.

Well… I don’t actually stick my head in there, but the oven heat does make it feel like that!

Now, Las Vegas summer heat is like that, except that it’s there all the time, and every time you go outside, or just walk from the parking lot to the building.

I can’t tell you how often I “greened,” “greyed,” and blacked out.

Anyway, the weekends don’t really work, heat or no heat. I have way too much to do: mega, major cooking for the week, and also catching up on work and doing laundry.

Busy-busy! The crunch period is taking place — ALL THE TIME!

One can say I’m a workaholic. Even though I hate to be labeled, I accept the fact that I behave like one.

New ideas come to me all the time, and it’s hard to prioritize and pick only one that needs my attention at the present moment. But when I can finally focus on one task, I will stay so focused as I dive deeply into it — so deep that I reach the task’s “black hole.” Then I become unaware of my surroundings. The focus is very intense, and that’s how I ignore what my body tells me.

This is how I can go for 14–15 hours at my desk with 5 screen monitors showing things I want to have nearby as my reference.

I found the walk distracting.

Plus, it was still very hot, unless I went way early in the morning. But there is no window for that. And, forget about walking in the evening! By the time it cools down, it will be around 10 o’clock!

Walking distracts me. I see a lot of things — pebbles, rocks, trees, flowers, birds, houses, skies, clouds, people, cars, and dogs and their poops, yeah. Not all neighbors want to pick up after their dogs do ‘da business!’

Instead of letting them be, my mind takes what it sees and starts a journey. Sometimes it visits the creative side — about what I can create next. Sometimes, the business side. That’s the one I like, because it brings on several marketing ideas — and some are really good.

It’s amazing how I can pick the best idea and start making it real. The brain is the most marvelous thing! As busy as mine is, I love what it does! Right, I have a “Spaghetti Bowl” brain, and it’s full of meatballs that represent hidden gems. I’ve just got to weed through to find them — one at a time!

I know sitting at my desk for long hours is not a thing to keep doing. So it’s good for me to move around. But, walking is out, at least for this point in time in my life.

That’s how I came to the decision of my “Out of Office Friday.” I made it with the intention of a clear mind.

I set my alarm at the same time as my workday alarm. It took the “5-4-3-2-1” for me to bounce off my comfy blanket. However, I got out of bed at “3,” because it’d take too long to finish all 5!

Ralph left for school (his workplace) already. I often joke — but not really — that he leaves as soon as he hears me come down the stairs! I can’t make myself not arrive one minute earlier, and Ralph can’t linger one minute more. So that’s how it is. Hehe! I might drag him to therapy one of these days… not so much because I want to see his “I’m tired” face in the morning, but more of me wanting to observe… something new. Then I’ll probably make a few videos and write about the experience.

I made it to the backyard after I poured home-roasted coffee that Ralph had already filled in the thermos, and plugged my ears with the open earbuds. I grabbed my phone, wondering if I should listen to yet another self-improvement book or marketing book.

I decided not to listen to anyone putting ideas into my brain right from my ears. Not today. Today is about me.

“For a few hours,” I whispered inside my head. “Then I go ‘Be Creative.’”

“What’s that?” I heard my other-self raise her voice. “I thought I declared Friday an ‘Out of Office’ day. Triple-O, remember? I was gonna work in the garden. Then, I’d do nothing — or get in the car, and go wherever the road would take me!”

“Really?” I talked back to the other me. “I didn’t hear about the driving part until just now!”

I stopped paying attention to the other me inside my head. Then, I made an executive decision:

“I will put in 2–3 hours outside, because I won’t last long before I feel off-centered (those fainting spells). Then I will go ‘Be Creative.’ Although I will sit at my desk, I will do artistic things — things that I won’t give my time during work hours. Okay? OKAY? Now be quiet. I don’t want you to talk anymore. Zip it and enjoy the outside air!”

I mumbled, “Should I plant any trees in the future, I will do better with digging.”

But, why did I say that? Who am I kidding? Me, I suppose! With the aging and lack of strength, the odds are, I’d never dig another hole in my yard again. Thinking back six years ago, I was full of energy. When neighbors and a few friends complimented the garden, I’d proudly tell them, “I dug every hole and planted every tree!”

It wasn’t hard removing dead trees, when the soil was really dry and the holes weren’t that deep. I kept pulling them out and piled them onto the wagon. I wept inside. It was my lack of care that sped up the process. … I was busy working for the past few years.

I worked and worked so much that, when one day I finally looked up, everyone else was gone.

My mind shifted away from what was about to change my mood of the day. Thank goodness that I dug up the — perhaps 13-foot-tall — mulberry tree. Immediately, my nose sensed the fresh, wet perfume of the wild forest.

I became more careful with the shovel, so its sawtooth didn’t cut off any large — and long — artery. This tree was planted more deeply! Whoa! The roots spread in a large area! When I got the last of them out, I had to walk the tree over and drop it straight into my largest and deepest pot that had previously contained the lotus plant.

I don’t like thinking — or even saying — “I hope…” I don’t want hope. I want the reality, then take action. But after a while I still smelled the wonderful fragrance coming off the roots of the mulberry, and hope sprung up.