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I want you to see my garden
I want you to really see my garden
Not just any of my gardens
Not the squash garden with show-off orange flowers which last but a few hours
Or the cucumber garden where tiny prickly cucumbers play hide and seek
Challenging me to find them in between the leaves.
Or the garden with unruly tomato plants reaching toward the sun
Nor the garden where arugula always shoots up to flower
Leaving its spicy and hot leaves hard to find.
Not the garden with peppers that hang like earrings waiting to be pulled off
And hastily popped into a mouth, hoping to cause a good burn!
Not the garden with the garlic scapes that curl like G-cleffs in the sun
No, not that one!
And not the garden with eggplants just forming, heavy like sleeping babies
even in their infancy.
Or the garden with Swiss chard which takes its sweet time to grow
but dazzles me each day with the chartreuse of its leaves in the sun.
Not these gardens!
I want you to love my precious garden, my beloved garden
My garden of herbs and flowers and leaves and berries and frogs
My cherished garden of rocks and found wood and treasures and tea-sets
With one tiny path that meanders through its tiny expanse
My garden of bees of all sizes who buzz between milkweed and sage
And spicy marjoram takes over the real estate bit by bit
Where blackberry canes want to take over the world
My garden of red fennel that fans like a horse's tail
And dill whose flower is like a green Milky Way
My sweet garden of fairies, petite mushrooms and tree stumps
My garden of pole beans and hiding places
Queen Anne's Lace presides like a daintily crocheted umbrella queen over the land
My escape, my peace and quiet, my tiny beautiful world!
Come and sit with me in my garden
There isn't much room, but I will find you a spot
We can sit and listen to the bees, find the elusive frog, watch the ants work hard
We can sit quietly, making sure not to miss the magic going on
For there is always movement in my garden
Life happening on a small scale
There are dances in the breezes and jigs in the winds
There is the weight of the raindrops falling and
The footsteps of ladybugs
There are birds and chipmunks watching you
Listen and you shall hear,
Look and you shall see!
Although my garden is crowded
My plants live in peace
They co-exist; they find common space
Respect each other's right to live in the garden
Although the colors of the flowers meld,
Plants are good neighbors to one another
They draw from the strengths of one another and from this they grow stronger.
Together they create a kaleidoscope of color; a picture of what life can be.
Come and sit with me in my garden
Meditate, hum, watch, pray, remember, dream
For a garden can teach us a little bit of what life should be.
Dedicated to you, Sara. You loved plants and you loved gardens. May your memory be a blessing.
