Gardner's Journal - Celebration

"Making a garden is not a gentle hobby for the elderly, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so he will hav to accept that his life is going to be radically changed...Whatever he had considered to be his profession has become an avocation. His vocation is his garden." -- May Sarton

There are times in the garden where one is utterly alone. The sheer size of the chore ahead is so great and one's power seems so small that it seems the job cannot be done.

Yet the job is done one shovelful at a time. One plant is moved, more are born. Space is filled and the work of life in its own miraculous way, continues.

This morning my desk is littered with books of all kinds. An almost completed manuscript for an upcoming class session sits crazily in my "out box". Pencils and pens are scattered here and there. My phone started ringing this morning at 7 am...was on the phone until late at night.
My cell phone needs a rest from the overuse of the past few days, my computer is hot, hot, hot with the whir of work and with ideas. My assistants have worked hard the last few days refining, re-doing, re-working, providing me with that partnership of creativity that is so sweet and so helpful.

There are times such as this that I simply have to sit back and say, "wow". I am not a simple person. My friend Chuck says that I think too much (he's not the only one to say that, but he's right!) I have been known to give people big headaches by the sheer amount of questions that I can ask. But there are times when I just have to sit down and say, wow.

I could ask a million more questions (probably will) but the simple truth of the fact is this - God, you are faithful. You not only provided the way, you provided the strength, you provided the people, you provided the nurturing, you, in short YOU DID THIS. I was just a lucky tool, like the shovel who crunches through the hard dirt, and keeps on working.

When my world comes down around me and I lift my head and too often my fist to you and say, why, why, why...you simple take me and we go to work and you show me your infinite mercy and goodwill. You take me kicking and screaming, but you take me nonetheless.

Your love surrounds me even when I cannot see it, feel it or touch it. But today, I see it.

And I'm grateful.