Planted

I was talking to my daughter Tuesday, looking for a little inspiration for you. She laughed and said, “Here is my poem for today!” She has a book, A Poem A Day

'Time' by Ursula Bethell

‘Established’ is a good word, much used in garden books,

‘The plant, when established’ . . .

Oh, become established quickly, quickly, garden

For I am fugitive, I am very fugitive – – –

Those that come after me will gather these roses,

And watch, as I do now, the white wisteria

Burst, in the sunshine, from its pale green sheath.

Planned. Planted. Established. Then neglected,

Till at last the loiterer by the gate will wonder

At the old, old cottage, the old wooden cottage,

And say ‘One might build here, the view is glorious;

This must have been a pretty garden once.’

From a Garden in the Antipodes (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1929)

This reminded me so much of my mother. My mother was an artist, and a gardener. Every home she lived in was improved by her living and growing there. She taught us all the importance of growing a garden, even if only one tomato plant out on the balcony. “Surround yourself in your own ‘Garden of Eden’”

I remember one year, standing on my3rd floor terrace in Washington DC, surrounded by seventy pots filled with flowers and vegetables. I shouted out to the city, “I’m doing this for you world! I’m providing oxygen for a city block!”

One year for Christmas my parents gave each of their children a cement statue of a book with a garden quote on it. Mine said,

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”

This week we have been planting roses, tomatoes, petunias and geranium in our terrace pots. The yard is filled with fruit trees

Isn’t this just the way our lives are lived? We hope and dream. We plan for those dreams and work to make them grow. But sometimes what we establish, what we become,  is most appreciated by those who come after us. Like the Renaissance artists and Impressionists, we often aren’t valued in our own time as our work is in the future. But we work and plan, and hope for those generations who come after. Happy Mother’s day!

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