When I garden, or blog about the garden, it can feel like I’m doing hobbies while the world burns. Today, military planes are flying over south-west England, there’s a terrible war in the middle east that’s getting worse and likely to cause an economic crash, and the President of the USA is showing video game and wrestling style images and telling lies about bombing schools.

I asked Google about doing hobbies while the world burns and it said ‘Engaging in hobbies while the world feels overwhelming is a crucial, healthy way to manage stress, avoid burnout, and retain a sense of joy and humanity’ and presented a firefighters’ charity blog about ‘Why hobbies are so good for us’ – more about that in a moment.

I feel that I’m not doing enough to help improve the future. Although I avoid working for bad organisations, I try to shop and live fairly ethically, and I do a few bits to help community organisations, I don’t really do a lot to stick up for what I think is right. In my youth I went to marches and protests and demonstrations, I haven’t done so for decades now. It doesn’t help that I’m not always entirely sure what I think is right, but I am utterly certain that illegal wars are very wrong, and putting out fires is far better than starting them.

So although I can’t do much to help, I can donate to help the helpers, and if you have a little spare to put towards helping UK firefighters here’s the link: https://www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/donate

And here’s a snippet from the Fire Fighters Charity on the benefits of gardening.

Mental health benefits of gardening

The mental health benefits of gardening are widely documented, with research showing gardening can reduce feelings of depression, loneliness, anxiety and stress. Being in nature, or even just watching nature out of a window, can have a neurological impact on our brain chemistry and make us feel better.

Gardening helps us to be in the here and now. We know anxiety worsens when people focus on the past or worry about the future. But being in and around the garden and the ever-changing magic of nature helps us to focus on what is happening right now and appreciate that moment. 

https://www.firefighterscharity.org.uk/living-well/self-care/hobbies

And so I’m off to to a bit of weeding and planting. There’s a self seeded primrose in the cracks of the paving at the bottom of the garden that could do better in a sunnier spot, and a bit of rhubarb I could harvest to cook something nice with. The weather’s cold but it’s not raining, and there might be a spot of sunshine later.

Ten minutes later the wild primrose that had self seeded in the pathway by the rhubarb is now in a more prominent and sunnier spot. I hope this move will help it grow, to flower more and set more seed, and feed more bees. I know we need more bees please, so I know that helping the flowers helps the bees which helps the ecosystem, which helps to keep my sense of whelm in balance.

Doing hobbies while the world burns is not so bad I guess, there are far more destructive pastimes than planting.

Take care of yourself, balance your ‘whelm’, and support your local bees and fire fighters please 🙂

J xx