Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012

I’ve heard many ways friends have celebrated when their divorces were made final.  Anything and everything from a quiet night in, getting drunk, having a celebratory party to smashing their old wedding ring.  Trust me, I had my own notions of how I’d celebrate….

But when all was said and done and I was making the 108-mile drive back home from the court, an interesting thing happened.  An absolute calm washed over me.  Then…I wanted to do…something…create something new…breathe new life into something already existing. 

So what did I do?  I stopped at a couple of landscape growers before locating one of my favorite plants.  Well…actually, I was seeking a couple of them—both of the same plant.  My thought was, what better way to celebrate beginning a new life than by planting something that would grow and flourish right along with me?  So, I did that. 

Though many growers have stopped carrying this particular plant, I did find one, a mere twenty-minute drive from my new house, which had a ton of them.  And best of all, this was a wholesale nursery/tree grower, so their items were about a quarter of the price they would have been elsewhere.  In addition, their particular plants were enormous! 

Woohoo and score for me!

I paid for my plants, satisfied with how I’d decided to celebrate my new lease on life.  Had to leave them at the nursery, though, till a friend with a large truck would help me move them today.

Setting my alarm for early this morning, my friend and I headed back to the nursery.  There, with the help of two other workers, we were able to get the trees loaded into the back of the truck.  Then, in order to not wind damage or put the trees into too much shock, we drove half the normal speed to get back to my house.  Took and hour instead of twenty minutes to make the trek, but the trees appreciated our effort and held up great!

Each tree weighs in at about two hundred pounds!  Big buggers that are delicate, meaning one has to be mindful not to put too much pressure on the limbs, least they snap off.  Therefore, getting the planting tubs off each and then placing them in the holes I’d dug was a bit of a…challenge.  Seems the trees had the idea that little ol’ me should end up in the hole with them.  Something along the lines of, if we go…you go too.

LOL. 

But I’m not a novice at planting huge things and was able to ease the trees into their holes without planting myself in the process.  Good thing, cause after I’d backfilled the holes and stepped back to see my handiwork, a huge smile awakened my face. 

Still have that smile…. 

Conversed with a ton of friends last night that wanted to know how I celebrated.  Had I burned my old wedding dress…?  Smashed my wedding bands…?  Had a party…?  When I told them about my tree-planting celebration, each was impressed with how I maintained my positive attitude by wanting to breath new positive energy into my new beginning.  And you know what?  I couldn’t be more pleased with how I opted to celebrate my new single life.  Looking out the window, I keep smiling at my trees, thinking, ya know…we’re gonna be just fine…in fact, we’re gonna be great!