{"id":52,"date":"2015-03-01T02:35:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T02:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/?p=52"},"modified":"2015-04-04T22:13:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T05:13:45","slug":"down-and-dirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Down and Dirty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/image13.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-50\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/image13-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/image13-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/image13-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>What is it about playing in the dirt that makes everything fade away!? The smell- damp musty sweet decay of the soil takes me to a calm relaxed place; where it&#8217;s just me and nature getting down and dirty playing having a ball! Sinking my hands deep into the soil, feeling the soft lightly squishy\u00a0yet silky grains slide over my hands and fingers brings me an almost sureal kind of peace. The simple yet dedicated act of placing the rocks, soil, plant, then more soil and food is a process that gives clarity without thinking.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-55\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/image-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Tucking, patting, placing\u00a0the plant\u00a0all snug in it&#8217;s new home, promising to care for it with love and appreciation, I step back and see the beauty that we, the plant and I, have made. Beauty that will give me a smile each and every time I stare out and see how it&#8217;s flourishing, growing big and tall, alive and breathing just like me. Sounds lame to some I know, but the healing given as well as received is priceless to me. It is the adult version of playing in the sand box, playing in the mud, and for me making mud pies like I did when I was young. It is the act of playing that brings rewards and joy for a very long time to come. Ha play time that never ends&#8230;&#8230;.. Yeah I like that because when I look out and see the progress made it makes me stand a little taller, smile a little wider, laugh a little happier. Not to mention it makes the back porch a lovely place to be! Grow be fat and healthy my\u00a0new little gem\u00a0\ud83d\ude09 you let me see the beauty in playing like a child again&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;H<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is it about playing in the dirt that makes everything fade away!? The smell- damp musty sweet decay of the soil takes me to a calm relaxed place; where it&#8217;s just me and nature getting down and dirty playing having a ball! Sinking my hands deep into the soil, feeling the soft lightly squishy\u00a0yet &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/?p=52\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Down and Dirty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feeling-it","category-in-the-zone"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pattingthepuppy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}