Growing a Garden, a Family, a Life

Spring through your eyes as a child… What do you remember?  

Sun bursting through the clouds, warm on your face. The cold of winter gone. Being outdoors enjoying nature. Breathing in fresh air. Colorful flowers appearing. Leaves opening. Birds chirping as they build nests. Flying a kite. I remember feeling happy, carefree, content, energized. Laughing. Singing. Running in my bare feet through the green grass. I may be alone in that, but I have a feeling I am not. Even the spring rains could not dampen my spirit. 

Grandma lived just down the street from my home in our small-town community. Some spring days, my bare feet carried me to the freshly tilled ground in Grandma’s big garden to help her plant. She prepared the rows and poked holes. I dropped seeds into each hole with no thought of the work Grandma had done to plan her garden or of the care it would take as it grew. My mind was far away and without a worry. 

Grandma and Mom shared the passion for tenderly nurturing each sprouting seed. Somehow even the most tightly curled seeds flourished with their care and grew into what they were meant to be. Some seeds held the promise of food to eat or share, while others were grown for pure enjoyment.  

Like most children, I was less willing to help Mom in her garden, but she allowed my siblings and I to have our own square foot space to tuck as many plants into the soil as we could. Carrots were my vegetable of choice, a great snack in the middle of the day when I was outside playing. Although many times I impatiently picked them before they were ready to eat. 

Those are happy memories, and recently mom shared with me something Grandma had said to her in those years, “Your children are your flowers now.” What a blessing those women have been in my life as they nurtured me more tenderly than their precious plants!  

As life does, it has moved on. I married and started my own home. Grandma passed away. Mom lived near me for all of the years that my children were small. Their own small hands have had the privilege of digging in the dirt beside their grandma, in our own raised beds.  While I haven’t developed that same passion for gardening, Grandma’s legacy of nurturing lives on.  

As Audrey Hepburn once said, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”   

I am so grateful for the seeds planted by my Grandma and Mom in my life that have nurtured me to become who I am today. I am Karen Keim—a little dreamer who became a woman, wife, mom, and designer. Together with my husband, Robbie, we are stewarding Keim, our family business. I look forward to sharing life from the Keim Home each month in this blog. (You can sign up for regular updates, here.) As you read, I hope the things you plan and plant in your life grow and flourish!   

From my home to yours,