The last few posts here on Creative Potager have been about the end of life – a necessary reflection in our creative and life journey, but not a place to dwell.

Today I want to shift us towards sustaining. What sustains us until the time of renewal? In the seasons the time of renewal is spring. The rosehip has always been a sustaining symbol and resource for me through fall and winter. When I was young, we were told we could eat rosehips if we got lost in the woods. My mother made apple-rosehip butter for a special treat on our hot porridge or toast. While playing outside, we would peel the rosehip skin off and nibble it sometimes pretending we were eating a piece of the sun, leaving the pithy insides for the mice and birds.

The nutritional and health attributes of rosehips are well known. They are used to make teas for the immune system and oils for the skin – just to name a few ways it is employed. So, when I see rosehips, I am filled with a “we can do it” attitude. I almost always smile and I sometimes laugh aloud when I see them. I feel hopeful. I feel able to reach into my stored reserves and snatch a piece of possibility right off one of those thorny branches.

Sprout Question: What sustains your creativity until a time of renewal?

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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.

From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada