Bringing The Garden Inside

It's a bad time for many of my friends right now.  Some have lost jobs and are worried about the future, some are suffering from horrible diseases and can't get treatment, some have lost lifelong friends and close family members.  Even The Poppit is unhappy, as grey, wet, cold days follow more grey wet cold days, leaving her gazing longingly at the sliding glass door.

An unhappy Poppit

  So, to avoid slipping into my own gnarly depression this fall and winter, I gave in to my craving for Nature's beauty to keep my center and expand my focus. 

In September and October, clippers in hand, I ravaged my beautiful summer pots filled with fuchsias, kalanchoe and coleus for cuttings.  I prowled the garden sections of The ReStore for small pots and The Salvation Army for tiny glass vases.  With virtuous glee, I  realized that recycling Trader Joe's Kalamata Olives and Ginger Chutney Jars to hold cuttings made perfect sense, and filled all the vases and jars with a plant yummy mixture of water and compost tea.


And today, December 7th, my garden lives again:

Even my five year old kalanchoe, outraged by being left out too long in the cold and then mercilessly buzz cut, has produced a flower.


My blooming flowers do not change what I know about friends and family.  They are like the New Testament's lilies:

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;

they toil not, neither do they spin:

and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory

                  was not arrayed like one of these."                                                

And just to see this array in my kitchen and around the house inspires me and leaves me smiling with fondness at my niece's annual contribution to our table.

 

 

Beauty doesn't need recognition to be beautiful.  But I need to recognize beauty to keep me keyed to all of life.  Hence, the cuttings , the pots of fragrant herbs, and my four beautiful fur babies.

 

 

May you find comfort in the beauty around you during this holiday season!