Quarantine bouquet

I ran yesterday between appointments at work. I needed to get outside. I needed exercise.

When I returned home, I walked through my garden, as I always do in spring when I come home from a run. The only plant in bloom in my garden is the forsythia, but as I looked around, I saw the mint is coming up again. The lavender kept its leaves through the winter. So did the rosemary, and the sage.

I thought about people buying bouquets at Kroger to perk themselves up in this time of self-isolation. I also thought about advice a friend in customer support gives, to keep a self-care kit by your computer when working in support. What struck me about her advice is that the kit should have something for each of your senses, so that when the work gets hard, you can go to the kit to pull yourself into your body with touch, taste, sound, smell, and sight.

I found a jelly jar in the pantry and grabbed the snippers from the garage, and I made myself a self-care bouquet of mint, sage, lavender, rosemary, and forsythia blossoms. The yellow blooms are a joyful contrast against my home office’s sky blue walls. When I need a zing of the outdoors, I rub my fingers on the mint to release its invigorating scent; when I need to be soothed I rub the lavender. When I want to get hungry, it’s the rosemary’s turn. And when I want something pretty, I just look at the bouquet.

The cats like it too.