When I started gardening, I remember feeling as if I had found my purpose. I had been trudging through the trenches of mental health for so long that I had forgotten what it was like to feel pure joy again. On a whim, my husband and I paid a visit to our local hardware store for unrelated items when we walked past the garden section and ended up buying miscellaneous vegetables, bags of soil, and rail road ties (yikes, toxic but that is for a different conversation). When we got home, we worked diligently for a few hours to assemble and plant our very first garden together. I was unemployed at the time, having just graduated college and the job market sucked. So, every day I gardened. And every day I noticed the weight on my shoulders began to feel a little lighter until I was full on in a state of blissful peace and harmony with my home and life.