It went something like this:
Going on a squeegee hunt
GOING ON A SQUEEGEE HUNT
Gonna catch a big one
GONNA CATCH A BIG ONE
I’m not afraid
I’M NOT AFRAID
But what’s that up ahead?
BUT WHAT’S THAT UP AHEAD?
A big field of grass
A BIG FIELD OF GRASS!
Can’t go over it
CAN’T GO OVER IT
Can’t go around it
CAN’T GO AROUND IT
Can’t go under it
CAN’T GO UNDER IT
Gotta go through it
GOTTA GO THROUGH IT!
*100 10 year olds rubbing their hands together like they’re trying to keep warm.*
(That’s the sound of going through the grass.)
REPEAT THE CHORUS
What’s that up ahead?
WHAT’S THAT UP AHEAD?
A bunch of mushrooms
A BUNCH OF MUSHROOMS
Can’t go over it
CAN’T GO OVER IT
Can’t go around it
CAN’T GO AROUND IT
Can’t go under it
CAN’T GO UNDER IT
Gotta go through it
GOTTA GO THROUGH IT!
*100 10 year olds locking their own fingers together and then clapping their palms.*
(Try it. It sounds like you’re walking through mushrooms.)
When you’re 45 the song hits different.
What’s that up ahead?
WHAT’S THAT UP AHEAD?
An extended hospital stay
AN EXTENDED HOSPITAL STAY!
Inflation
INFLATION!
A sick kiddo
A SICK KIDDO!
An expired driver’s license
AN EXPIRED DRIVER’S LICENSE!
The RealID Deadline
THE REALID DEADLINE
1,000 year floods
1,000 YEAR FLOODS!
A sprained ankle
A SPRAINED ANKLE
Spring
SPRING!
You know what comes next:
Can’t go over it
CAN’T GO OVER IT
Can’t go around it
CAN’T GO AROUND IT
Can’t go under it
CAN’T GO UNDER IT
Gotta go through it
GOTTA GO THROUGH IT!
My friend Marcy and I were chatting one night during the EXTENDED HOSPITAL STAY (of my Dad) and the song came up.
“The girl scouts were on to something,” we said.
Can’t go over it
CAN’T GO OVER IT
Can’t go around it
CAN’T GO AROUND IT
Can’t go under it
CAN’T GO UNDER IT
Gotta go through it
GOTTA GO THROUGH IT!
Use Your Hands
How DOES one go through EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE?
Last November, December, January, and February I got to “enjoy” the state of being that YOU enjoy in March and April and May and June.
And I just didn’t have anything to say that would help YOU go through it.
Until now.
Until my garden bloomed.
And multiple times a day, I run hobble outside and take pictures.
(WHAT’S THAT UP AHEAD? A SPRAINED ANKLE! unfortunately refers to me.)
EVERY. SINGLE. DAY I’m BEYOND delighted by my flowers.
I’m SO GRATEFUL to Fall Katie for making time during the h3llscape of November and to Tami for helping me get it done.
My garden woke me back up.
It made me be present.
It made me pay attention. (So I could water and pull weeds and cut bouquets and and and.)
It brought me back to myself.
I say I didn’t have anything to say so I didn’t write.
That might not actually be true.
It’s possible that I didn’t think I actually WOULD make it through.
My brain just COULD NOT.
But my hands could.
If I had brains in January or February I could have written to you about the new hobby I picked up in early December: Crochet.
I learned to crochet because when I learned to knit around the age of 10 I told my dad I’d make him a blanket for his knees in the nursing home. 35 years later and I still hadn’t and I didn’t want that to be an unfulfilled promise.
Crochet is what saved me while sitting next to Dad after getting devastating health news.
Crochet is what saved me during what we thought were our last two weeks with him.
Crochet is what saved me while sitting for 6, 7, 8, 10 hours at a time by his hospital bedside.
Crochet is where I channeled my anxiety about the coming realization that I would need to exit a company I put ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I had into building last year.
My brain just COULD NOT.
But my hands could.
This is a picture from Christmas Eve that my husband took of my dad taking a picture of me doing my new hobby. Dad’s always been my cheerleader.
You are going to reach a point over the next few weeks when you just CANNOT.
And yet, you’ll have to go through it.
That’s what I learned while surviving the most difficult 12 months I’ve ever had.
I got a preview of this during the pandemic when I picked up a pen and learned to draw and picked up a paintbrush and learned to paint.
Sketching got me through that year unlike any other.
That requires a lot of brains though. And it’s hard to pick up and put down sketching 23 times in the course of an hour. Hence, crochet.
But whether it’s crochet, sketching, gardening, cooking, swinging the golf club, playing pickleball, using your hands has amazing health and brain benefits.
In this article, one of the researchers interviewed discussed the way difficult times can create a sort of learned helplessness in people and that seeing the fruits of your labor, whether building a lego set, baking bread, knitting, crocheting, and, yes, gardening, can help you build a sense of accomplishment and control over your world.
I guess that’s what my garden did for me this spring.
We Must Cultivate Our Gardens
That famous Voltaire quote is from his 1759 novella, Candide, which he wrote in the aftermath of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. That earthquake is widely considered one of the earliest natural disasters that was communicated about across the globe.
In its wake, many of the modern social constructs we now live by were developed.
This is an interesting research paper about it.
When everything is EVERYTHINGING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE you can and do need to cultivate your garden or make your bread or putt into a cup on the floor.
And lucky for YOU what you do, what you sell, what you create helps your CUSTOMERS cultivate their gardens.
TL;DR
1. Find yourself something you like to do that is relatively low effort and involves your hands. DO IT.
It will help you. I promise.
Literally, if you must, get some silly putty and squish it around.
2. REMIND YOUR CUSTOMERS that THEY must cultivate their gardens. That it will make them FEEL BETTER.
(We’ve been leaning into this for clients and it is REALLY working for them.)
3. Send me pictures of your gardens!!
STEALTH Workshop at Cultivate
Cultivate would like me to stop calling this a workshop because you have to pay extra for workshops and you do not have to pay extra for this.
“This” is our (Amanda Thomsen, Ben Futa, and me) Local & Independent Business Bootcamp on Saturday, July 12, which is included in your All Access Pass.
It is a linked series of sessions which, if you attend all of them and hang with us all day, will be like going to a workshop.
It is geared toward plant shops and garden centers with an annual revenue of $1M or less.
Our supply list includes a disco ball and a gong.
We have a special guest, Meg Morrison, business and leadership coach extraordinaire to do the last session with us.
We can’t wait to see you!
Season 2 Is HERE!
Amanda and I would like to say THANK YOU to our 174 subscribers. As Amanda said, “That’s 170 more subscribers than we thought we’d have!”
If you haven’t listened, it’s a good time to start.
And SHOUT OUT to our happy listeners that I met IRL in Michigan. I love it that you heard my voice in a room and came to find me.
You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.
(Pssssst: If you can go subscribe, favorite, and give us 5 stars that would be super rad. Kthanksbye.)
Handy Links
Each newsletter always has a mix of fun and functional links. Here they are! Have a link to share? Send it to me!
Listen to the Squeegee Song
Read this book. It’s kind of like self help but more fun. I’ve underlined on every page.
How to take a screen capture of a full web page
List of Must-See Flower Festivals
GREAT GREAT GREAT info about making email marketing work better for you
LOVED this book, Wild Dark Shore. It takes place at a SEED VAULT!
How to make Animated Gifs in Canva
It’s like Canva but for landscape design!
Garden to the Max: Joyful, Visionary, Maximalist Design
By Teresa Woodard with Photographs by Bob Stefko is a gloriously, visually sumptuous book.
I FRICKIN Loved the TV show The Residence on Netflix. Bonus: the detective is a birder. If you like my newsletter, I bet you’d like her.
GOW-ERS (HOURS BUT MAKE IT GOW)
Our work days are Monday-Thursday. Any requests that come in after noon ET on Thursday are likely to be completed the following week, unless it’s Red Phone Service.
We are closed all U.S. Federal Holidays.
Do you need help? We have room for a VERY few projects, particularly web related projects. Please take a look at this page and grab a discovery call slot. If we can’t start immediately, we’ll let you know a target start date after we talk.
Finally, YOU CAN DO THIS! You can do spring. You’ve done it dozens of times before. Remember that.
Remembering all of the difficult things I’ve gone through during my career is what helped me get through. That, and my crochet hook.
What’s your crochet hook? Write back and tell me. I’m always up for a new hobby!
ART PS!
Top: Airlie Gardens tulip bloom
Middle: The old barn at Shelton Herb Farm
Bottom: Outside Missoula Montana
