Back to Roots in More Ways Than One

The last few years have presented me with innumerable challenges, many of my own making and many over which I have had no control.  While there have been some daily ups and downs in my professional life, most of my challenges have been personal, causing me to outwardly express more emotion than I felt I would ever divulge.

Time has a funny way of surprising you. Time has revealed to me that I am most likely coming into my final years as a school library media specialist.  It is not that I don't love the job and the people, because I truly do, but I have realized that I need to pursue other interests that have been tabled for years.

Interestingly and amazingly, things have come full circle for me in many ways.  I am working part-time as the Adult Services Librarian at Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library, where I began my library career in 1982.  In that capacity, I am working on a series of organic gardening classes, which has reawakened my original passion -horticulture.

I believe it was the summers of my seventh, eighth and ninth grade years that I spent a week at VFW Youth Camp.  I believe the  goal of the camp was to embed a deep sense of patriotism that I never truly bought.  What I did give me is memories of lifelong friends - Bob Boyles, Tim Ware and Brian Lantz - and exposure to a myriad of professional possibilities.  My favorite activities at camp were target practice and the educational experiences brought to us by the WVU Extension Service.  Horticulture was a class I will never forget, as I was told I had a knack for landscape design.  I was totally empowered until I returned home and realized I was allergic to everything that came along with my plan.  So I settled for suitable female professions - nurse, teacher or hairdresser.

My parents never had the financial or information resources to help me realize my dreams, but neither that nor my allergies deterred me from messing around in dirt.  I cherished our flowers, annuals and periennials, at our house on Hall Street, and ever since I was little I loved helping Daddy in the garden or sitting with Grandma as she stringed beans.  When I moved into my own homes, planting bulbs and designing our landscape was my favorite passion.  While I detested weeding, I loved mowing grass, trimming bushes, planting and transplanting, and I loved our vegetable garden.  Over the years as I have become busy with other endeavors, I have let this pastime behind. Now that I have been researching organic methods, I am even more inspired to expand my visions in home landscaping.

And, of course, also coming full circle in a family sense is that my husband and I now own my great-grandmother's farm, which was my dad's biggest comfort and treasure.  I am thinking that perhaps in November 2019 I will hang up my school library clothes and move there, where I will have virtually unlimited vistas to design.  I am looking forward to digging in and becoming more in touch with God and nature. Hopefully I will keep my part-time gig to fund all the work I hope to do.
 

Closure will be complete.