2025 - Week 18 - Spontaneity

Why Struggle? Podcast w Barbara J. Faison

All the LINKS - LINKTR.EE/BARBARAFAISON

This is a podcast about spontaneity.

If you're new to the podcast, welcome, and if you listen regularly, thank you.
I have been a planner for most of my life. Sure I do spontaneous things, however, there's usually a plan in my spontaneity.
I think like most people, I have my routines down pretty good. Most Sundays I do my grocery shopping, come in and cook, and begin to prepare for the week.
I enjoy routine, most of the time. Then sometimes I like to mix it up and do something a little different. I mean, after all, variety is the spice of life, right? Or so they say.
When my husband, TD, suggested we drive out to a nursery to look at flowers on Sunday, I was game. Insert growth moment for me. Let’s just say there have been times in the past when that would have been very problematic. I had my day scheduled, something spontaneous would have thrown my schedule out of the window. I love when I can notice and appreciate my growth.
In Episode 16 I talked about life maintenance and the importance of maintaining things that are important in our lives. And in that moment, the focus was on working on the flowers and updating the yard. At least it was for my husband. Lol.
Off to the nursery we went. The nursery was about an hour away so we took a scenic drive and it was a day date.
We pulled up to the street to the nursery and saw all the cars and police directing traffic, it was very busy and bustling. There were so many beautiful flowers, shrubs, and trees to take in. The line was long, and it moved very quickly. Both my parents were excellent gardeners. I enjoy flowers and plants and know the names of many of them from the years of going with my mother to pick out flowers. I will occasionally dig in the dirt, however, I do believe my brother and niece picked up the planting gene. They both enjoy planting flowers and my niece, April, even makes her own jams, jellies and sauces from her plants.
Walking through the nursery felt relaxing and chatting with the people as we were selecting our lantanas, roses, blueberry and blackberry bushes made me smile and remember my mother’s joy at finding great prices for her plants. See, I told you I remembered some of names of the flowers.
Every day and every moment we are creating new memories. In Episode 13 I shared how to use Go To Memories as a tool, check it out. One of my favorite Go To Memories was returning home after a trip to Boston to see the garden TD had planted. As you drive up to our house at the end of the carport to the left side going toward the back of the house by the deck is where the garden is.
I remember vividly pulling up and seeing the roses, butterfly bushes and other flowers he had planted while I was gone for the weekend. I had traveled for work and due to storms was not able to get out of the area for two days.
Can you imagine that? Planning to leave on Friday and not being able to leave until Sunday?
As life would have it, at that time, April was living in Connecticut, so it ended up being a lovely adventure. It had been my intention to visit her while she was there and I just hadn’t gotten around to it. And then the weather happened and I was grounded in Boston. I took the train from Boston to Connecticut and spent the weekend with her. I also got to see a cousin who picked me up when I returned to Boston for my flight and he took me to brunch and on a brief tour of the Harvard campus.