My husband and I live in an apartment across from a farmer’s field (it’s one of those situations where the city has inched outwards: parking lots and residential neighbourhoods on one side of the road, farmland on the other). I love looking out the window and seeing open space instead of traffic lights, and the sunset filtering through the trees that border the field is one of my favourite views!
But, one thing I didn’t consider when we moved in last summer, when the field was rippling with little green plants, is what would happen in the springtime before planting season had begun. In a word: dirt. On beautiful breezy spring mornings, I’d happily throw open all of our west-facing windows … only to return a few minutes later and find the whole house covered in a fine layer of dust. The soles of my feet would be black by the afternoon, just from walking barefoot across my living room floor! Even the white fur on my dog’s paws started to look discoloured. Our patio furniture was even worse! I ran the vacuum almost every day, and still the house didn’t feel clean.
Then, a few weeks ago, the farmer came. He plodded slowly across the field, picking up rocks and branches by hand and moving them out of the way of his tractor. As he plowed, dirt billowed behind his tractor in clouds (we kept the windows closed that day). And when he left, the field looked exactly the same as it always had, just tidier, with rows from the tractor carved into its surface.
When the first green shoots poked their heads forth, tracing beautiful long lines across the field of dirt, I was so excited I almost forgot about the mess. The weeks of dirt as the soil waited for planting season suddenly seemed worth it. The daily growth I saw out my window now filled me with joy! The long weeks of vacuuming constantly and closing the windows against the gorgeous spring breeze suddenly seemed to make sense.
Not all parts of the growth process are glamorous. Some are downright messy. But you can’t rush the timing (after all, if they’d planted right after the last snow, frost would surely have killed off even the bravest little plant), and you can’t ignore the payoff.
For someone whose life has felt a little slow this year (while the US is mostly back to normal, Canada is still in a heavy lockdown) this is a living reminder to myself not to ignore the seasons of dirt. Yes, they’re unpleasant. They require a lot of clean-up. But there’s preparation happening. Growth is coming. Change is in the air. And when it comes, it brings with it the beauty of fresh life and the reminder that a new harvest is right there in front of me, just waiting to be reaped.
Olivia Smit loves baking, visiting small towns, and writing stories that face hard truth with hope and encouragement. Her first book, Seeing Voices, is now available. The sequel, Hearing Lies, releases in July. Olivia has an Honours Specialization in Creative Writing, English Language, and Literature. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and their dog, Cassiopeia. You can learn more at oliviasmit.ca, or on Instagram and Twitter @oliviamsmit.
