Last year my husband and I visited family in Alabama. They had this gorgeous garden, chickens running between our feet, hills all around their green, green patch of land. We couldn’t help but think of Eden, of man and woman working side by side to cultivate and order their place.

It moved us.

Leaving their house we vowed to be more purposeful about ordering our world.

This is our most recent herb harvest. We have rosemary, mint, basil, sage, and oregano. And we cook with all of it.

We changed a lot when we came home from Alabama. We invested more time in organizing, cleaning and simply decorating our home. We planted herbs in raised beds. We finally threw away (or gave away) all the junk in our garage. We worked (with much help from friends) to save our backyard from complete and total disorder. We make dinner more.

I can’t adequately communicate the fountain of joy, peace, beauty, and satisfaction we’ve discovered.

Jose Saramago said, “Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”

Deciphering is good, hard work. :)