Saving lives and other brave acts.

I’ve been silent. I haven’t blogged or dived. Land-locked at home, I’ve been focussing on what I can do with what I have here, in Robertson, South Africa. In the process my life-purpose has become clearer. While working on how to step into that, I’ve carried the words “Brave” and “Intentional” in my heart. Lately I’ve also been having strange dreams, which I didn’t laugh off, but gave it a bit more thought and the underlying symbolism was astounding. Then one night a very weird sentence hovered in my mind, keeping me from falling asleep for hours. At 03h00 I got up and found myself sitting in our dark, quiet sitting room, asking God to speak!

I love words, languages, poetry, art and symbolism, but the words I’ve collected needed a confirmation of the links I’ve made mentally. And so I had a conversation with God. In the days that followed I had a vision of exactly what I needed to create. It is so obvious and simple that I can’t help but laugh at how my life-purpose, my life story, my talents and my passions can be so fused into one project. I am excited and calm, but admit herewith that it is a big task and while I’m writing this blog, I realise I’m avoiding tackling the real writing and creating, by blogging and apparently also gardening.

So just to put your mind at ease that I’ve not lost the plot completely and gone dizzier than my usual blond self, I must share the following to show you that my feet are planted very firmly on and in terra firma! With my intentional decision to go into a period of silence, avoiding socialising and limiting my screen time, I found myself with energy that needed to go into a project.

I am a Lavender Lover and have a huge Lavender bush outside our bedroom window. Past winters I had the pleasure of gifting bunches of lavender, tied with pretty purple ribbons. This year however it’s impossible. The Lavender is overshadowed by other fast growing invaders. I woke up one morning, feeling frustrated with my inactive lifestyle (compared with my island style living in Mauritius) and asked myself, “What would a diver do today?”. I came to the following conclusion. A diver would eat healthy to build strength. A diver would be physically active and probably save something, remembering simple acts like untying fishing lines wrapped around coral and collecting fishing hooks and plastic from the seabed in some of my dives. So I looked around and noticed the sad Lavender outside my bedroom window. I jumped out of bed, got dressed in training gear, walked 2km’s on the treadmill and then stormed into the garden to save the Lavender.

My husband does not deal well with change and he was relaxing in the sun when I interrupted his serenity with my Rescue Plan. I’ll exclude the dialogue that followed, as not to be disrespectful to him or myself!  However the project has been a continuous one over the past week, as I’m physically unable to do in one day, what my gardener does in an hour. I also need to execute the ‘Save the Lavender Garden – Mission’ myself as I need the physical workout!      

Yesterday as my husband assisted me with removing some of the large intruders, he commented on my personality and work ethics. In my mother tongue, Afrikaans, we have a saying, “Brandewyn het nie brieke nie” – Brandy has no brakes. You can imagine the scenarios this can be used in! Now my dear husband said, “You know ‘Brandewyn het nie brieke nie’, but you’re Witblits!”. Witblits (White Lightning) is an African grape distilled and un aged spirit that packs a punch like no Brandy can. It can apparently have an alcohol content as high as 90%. Now if Brandy has no brakes, imaging how unstoppable Witblits is! Then the lyrics of one of my favourite songs came to mind –

Sia sings in ‘Unstoppable’:

 “I put my armour on, show you how strong I am

I put my armour on, I’ll show you how strong I am

I’m unstoppable

I’m a Porsche with no brakes

I’m invincible

Yeah, I win every single game

I’m so powerful

I don’t need batteries to play

I’m so confident

Yeah, I’m unstoppable today”

I found my husband’s comment extremely funny and very appropriate! I do become unstoppable when I have a plan! Not always an asset and I should make time to consider this, at some stage. At the moment however the project is progressing slowly. I have to cut out so much dead wood. You know how woody the inside of an old Lavender gets. Some of the branches are thick and very hard to cut. Although I am using the larger cutters, it almost seems as though it’s resisting being pruned. This large old Lavender bush made many babies and some have been pushed flat by other plants, while others are growing outside the flowerbed in the rocky garden path. One brave little one came up in the paved patio, next to the flowerbed. I first have to prune out all that is dead, reshape and tie up. The one tied up branch needs some extra support, to weather the wind and rain, which will hit us soon. We’ve planted an iron plant stake and tied it securely to that. Then I need to move some of the little ones closer and clean away anything that doesn’t belong. I want to plant a Rosemary next to the Lavender, but I haven’t been able to buy one larger than a seedling. I may very well transplant an adult into this flowerbed.  This afternoon I bought an old wooden planter that I got for a good price. I can oil it and we can add a few screws to strengthen it. I want to place it very strategically to give some wind protection. I’ll be sowing Sweet Basil in that.

As we were lying in bed last night, my husband commented. “You know, it would have been much easier to just poison everything outside the bedroom window, if you wanted to cause so much destruction.”

I know I move in like a cyclone when I have a plan and it may very well look like one passed through this flowerbed, but life has shown me that we need to trust the process.  In my life the blossoms that I’m carrying and the fruit I will bear soon, came after severe pruning, even a transplantation and at times it seemed like a cyclone devastated it. I was protected from some storms and tied up to weather others. At times the Gardener Himself stood in front of me as protection from a wild fire. I remember seasons of draught, where I felt like my heart and bones turned into dust. Was I planted in a desert? Then the Gardener would bring water just in time and my whole being would be satisfied.  That is what the lives of some plants look like in the hands of our Great Gardener, who wants us to be healthy and carry much fruit.

Samantha Ebert sings in ‘Flowers’:

“So I brought it up in a desperate prayer

Lord, why are You keeping me here?

Then He said to me, ‘Child, I’m planting seeds

I’m a good God and I have a good plan

So trust that I’m holding a watering can

And someday you’ll see that flowers grow in the valley’

So whatever the reason, I’m barely getting by

I’ll trust it’s a season, knowing that You’re by my side

Every step of the way

And I’ll be okay”

I have a vision of my herb garden with lavender in full bloom again. Creating it is a very brave and intentional act. Brave, as I’m weathering my husband’s stress at having devastation in front of our bedroom window, as well as my own fear that the task is too big for me. However, every intentional act I take in this flowerbed can only lead to one thing – a beautiful Lavender Herb Garden.

Do you have an area in your life asking you to be brave and intentional?

By Lynette Gerber-Lochenkov

June 2025