The first seed catalog arrived in yesterday’s mail. Its pre-season arrival always seems a bit too optimistic when the ground is frozen and I am, too. Gardening is the furthest thing from our minds in late December. We used to be inundated with ads of this kind until we started buying annuals and perennials locally and seeds, too. People who stop buying appear to be deleted from catalog lists. It is a treat to look through a catalog at this time of year and savor the luscious fruit that looks as though one could just reach out and pull off the tree. The flowers are all perfect: no blight, no insects. The vegetables would make any farmer proud to put them on his table.
Trumpet vine in our yard, photo by James Cummings
There is a lot of joy to be found in growing things. Like children, plants take a lot of care to make sure they get the right nutrients and stand tall and survive. Plants must be weeded, watered, and fertilized if they are to grow. They are a lot like relationships. Without care, relationships can die on the vine.
How many relationships have you had over the years that you’ve abandoned? This happens. Sometimes, the demise of a relationship is no one’s fault in particular, or happens for no reason that is apparent. Sometimes, the relationship was just a one-way street from the beginning, with only one person truly invested in it. One wise person once told me that she never worries about the relationships as they come and they go and really, there are so many people in the world, who cares? Well, that is one cavalier way to put it, but once we have given away a piece of our heart, it is no longer ours, and when someone exits our lives, there is a huge hole left that cannot be filled.
Winter is a dead time of year. All the colors have changed to gray and white and black. At least now that the Winter Solstice has happened, the days are getting a little brighter, a little longer. Spring is a happier, more carefree time, free of all of the expectations and commitments associated with Christmas, for example. Spring, with the returning summer birds, the awakening bears with their young, and the daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths fill us with joy and a feeling that anything is possible.
This winter has been bitterly cold. I’ve been down with the flu, and the holidays I have come to dread more and more. Anything that can bring promise for a better future is welcome, and today the seed catalog is fulfilling that role.
Here’s wishing you happiness in your life, the awareness to be thankful for what you have, the ability to harness the energy to change the things you do not like, and the wisdom to accept that which seems impossible to change. Here’s to a great 2011!
Pat
