one's niche

How does one know for sure that they have "found their niche" in life? Well, I think I have found one good way for determining that. Yesterday, when I got home from work I did what I usually do. I took off my shoes and went out into the garden to continue working at what I enjoy working at! But no sooner had I stepped out of the door than I felt a sharp stinging sensation on one of my toes. Knowing I had probably stepped on a bee feeding on one of the many clovers now in bloom I quickly shook it off. But I could feel the intensity of the sting was not abating so I took a look at that toe and sure enough, there was the bee stinger still stuck in my toe. Removing it alleviated the pain just slightly and, from past similar experiences I wasn't too concerned because I don't have any allergic reactions to insect stings. I debated whether to go inside and put some baking soda on it (one home remedy) but instead tried another remedy I'd heard of. Plucking the leaf of a plantain plant, which are as common as dandelions in most places, I chewed on it and stuck the wad of chewed plantain between the affected toe and its neighbor. The pain continued for about another 5-10 minutes, but then it quit altogether. One of my sons wasn't convinced that the plantain did the trick. He said his bee sting bites have felt better in that length of time anyway . . .

Anyway, I decided I needed to weed a part of the garden where the weeds were doing especially well (which I haven't minded up until now because those weeds included dandelion, plantain, lambsquarter and violets, all of which are quite edible and which I have been putting into our "green smoothies" every day). I was aware that part of the weed mix included a few stinging nettles but didn't think there were enough of them to bother getting gloves. So I proceeded to weed those nettles along with the other weeds, and sure enough, I felt the effects of those nettles on some of my fingers. But it wasn't that bad, certainly not as bad as the bee sting. Now the mosquitos, which also love lush vegetation, were a bit of a nuisance but I decided I'd put up with them in order to get the job done. I despise mosquito repellants almost more than the mosquitos and I've observed that as the spring and summer wears on my body must develop some sort of its own repellant because mosquitos bother me less and less. So I'll put up with their bites now and let nature take its course. I'm blessed to not have much of a reaction to mosquito bites, unlike others who can get good-sized welts from their bites.

Long story short, after sweating it out in the late afternoon sun and high humidity, fighting mosquitos, putting up with stinging nettle skin irritation and a bee sting, I could still report at suppertime that I had an enjoyable time in the garden. My oldest son's response was, "That's how you know what you're supposed to be doing with your life!" And I heartedly concurred. I knew I had truly found my niche.