Thursday, July 22, 2010

Rainbows & Hummingbirds


Some years ago, I discovered a perfect time to water my gardens. Perched high aloft on our deck, the forest shades my beds while the hose water prisms with sunlight. I no longer "have to go water the gardens", rather I "get to go make rainbows". This year, in one particular spot a young, female hummingbird joins me. She watches from the perimeter, seemingly to make sure I acknowledge her. Only after I have done so does she fly into the spray & dance in the shower. She alights on a young sumac tree, each morning where she flaps & preens. What a joy !!
I am reminded of a sentiment of Sarah ban Breathnach: "'Simple Abundance' has enabled me to encounter everyday epiphanies, find the Sacred in the ordinary, the [miraculous] in the mundane, fully enter into the sacrament of the present moment." The Hand of God at work is quite easy to see in the smallest of moments, when I simply pause to look with care.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

My Present View


I sat at the table one evening & suddenly saw my 9 yr old as a young man who was simply visiting for supper... God-moments such as these keep me grounded & grateful. As I strive to catch up on 2 years of tasks I am drawn to our deck to savor this amazing, everyday moment in my garden of boys !

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I Can Have Roses Later


My front window is brimming with Black-eyed Susans in such abundance that each year I give them away by shovels full. I long to mix in lilies, hyacinths & all manner of floral dreams. The bed however, is bordered by a basketball & skateboard court. It is a graveyard for toy vehicles of all sizes resting as it does, at the bottom of "the hill of death". Out back, the large blossoms of my Bee-Balm must be removed from the snarls of the gate-latch nearly every day & tethered back. The roses which cascade over our steps often lie bent or broken. One of the blessings of being an older parent is a better understanding of how fleeting the seasons of life truly are. I will have a lifetime of gardens... for now, I live in the magical world of play & imagination!

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Earth Laughs


We recently celebrated the 12 year anniversary of our "escape" from the city. That first summer was a magical one of healing & recovery. After suffering through back-to-back hospice care, deaths & a host of other griefs, we moved 500 miles south to begin anew. Our first home had picture-windows filled with a mountain. I immersed myself in "Simple Abundance" (by Sarah ban Breathnach), nested, voraciously journalled, & watched.
Our home overlooked a marsh & I daily relished a variety of songbirds, many of which I had only known through books & travel. Hummingbirds warred over the feeders which surrounded our home. There were bluebirds, thrushes, hawks, tits, towhees & far too many others to name! Goldfinches filled me with delight as they flashed electric-yellow. A childhood favorite, the red-winged blackbird nested in our "back forty". I set out gardens & my first window-boxes were filled with the gentle pink of Pentas, which gathered butterflies of all types. We lived there less than a year & I have never found those annuals again...until just recently. I now have window boxes boasting 3 shades of them!