I couldn't believe my eyes in late June when, searching Geepop's grave for the dozenth time, I found a dozen good-looking plants of Sabatia angularis in bud. Where in the Sam hill had they come from? Heaven?
It would be almost another month before they would bloom. But bloom they have.
They're the smaller pink flowers to the left, beneath Bill. He put a bench out there, and it's one of his favorite places to sit and think and talk to his dad.
A mighty nice big bunch at Geepop's feet.
A dozen of them!
You may be sure that I will keep sowing that dust-fine seed, to try to have Sabatia in bloom every summer out there. It's the least I can do. How I wish I could do the same to remember my dad, but he wanted to be buried in Thornton, Iowa, and that's where he is.
I miss my dad something fierce, and we sure miss GeePop, his music, his humor, his genuine warmth and his wisdom. It is a comfort to have a place to go in the orchard to feel all that coming through.
Bill and I sat for awhile out with Geepop on Sunday evening, present in the moment for once, waiting for a thunderstorm, listening to the thunder, savoring the long-awaited success of my little Sabatia ranch.
Chet listened to the thunder, too. He didn't much like it.
We got up and walked a little farther in the orchard, and we found a beautiful male box turtle, very old, but unscarred by cars. Unscarred box turtles only occur well away from roads. It seems like every one I help across a road has some dreadful scar from a car encounter. It's nice to find a traffic naif like this one, especially an old one.
Did you hear that? Was that thunder again?
Yes, Chet Baker. But I am here. You don't need to tremble.
Sometimes, if you keep trying and you don't give up, you can make magic happen. It surely seems like magic when these amazing, fragrant pink flowers sneak right past you, then suddenly spring into bloom. But it's not. It's work and hope and care and most of all love.
It's faith in a seed.
11 comments:
Another lovely and inspiring post! It's nice to know other folks still talked to their dear loved ones who have "moved on".
Beautiful."It's work and hope and care and most of all love."
Most of all love, to you and both Bills.
xxoom.
Hmmm. A lot like parenting I think. Have faith.
:-)
Je me souviens. Great things can happen, but first you have to plant that seed.
Kathy in Delray Beach
Beautiful post.
Gardening is all about faith.
"Work and hope and most of all, love." Great post. Keep sowing those seeds.
Just marvelous. When I was a child my parents gave me a present of a bracelet with one charm. A lucite charm encasing a mustard seed. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” And I think that that idea, faith in a seed from which great things may grow and birds and other creatures will find shelter and sustenance, found fertile soil. Bloom on!
You make magic happen just by being, Sista. The rest is gravy.
How wonderful, that after all that effort, this beautiful plant had the courtesy to bloom for you round about your birthday.
Which is...when, exactly? Whenever it is, happy birthday to you, Dear One.
I get irises, which are pretty but don't smell so much. But then, I get lily of the valley too. Lovely scent, and a whole lot less trouble to make happen than this bloom of yours.
I am happy for any moment that you get to be one with all that's good in this world. I know your up to the brim full of capacity to recognize the good stuff.
xo Hodge
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