Meg Buerkel Hunn, Advisory Council Chair: Step Outside and Breathe

We’re nearing the end of 2024.  There are loads of things to do: gifts to buy, parties to attend, lights to tour, music to sing, decorations to hang, cards to send, services to attend, travel to take, cookies to make.  It can all get overwhelming, can’t it?

And it’s precisely in those overwhelming times and places that Garden and Nature offer their gifts, their music, their celebration, their grace.  The balm of the outdoors is a remedy to the chaos of the season.  

If you find yourself in a moment of panic this season, step outside and breathe deep and thank the plants for the oxygen in your lungs.  Look to the trees, note how most have lost their finery, and yet, their limbs are swaying and dancing with grace and beauty.  Feel the earth beneath your feet and give a thought to the microscopic life that is living there, transforming the soil into a life-giving substance.  Stand under the big sky overhead, strewn with stars or clouds or blue. Listen to the wind and (hopefully some snow gently falling) and remember that we are all in this world together, separate parts dependent upon one another.   Take a few moments to  just be aware… and possibly, grateful…

There is so much here.  So much. It is a privilege to tend and care and notice and grow here in this place with all of you and with the Sandoval Extension Master Gardeners.  I wish you peace and joy this season – and in 2025!

-Meg