BLOSSOMS AND BEES

Chicory has found a home in the wildflower bed alongside the irises that grow there. Its growth is massive this year, reaching above my head with perfect little sky-blue flowers.

The marvelous thing about this enthusiastic plant is that the flowers only last for one day. They open just as the sky is beginning to brighten in the morning. They face to the east, like true sun worshippers. They only open fully in the morning and are usually closed up tight again around noon, when the sun is at its highest point. As sun worshippers, they know when they’ve had enough, and they know that for this one day they have lived as they should. That’s their whole life, finished in one day. A new batch will take their place tomorrow.

The bees are their companions, arriving almost as soon as they are open. They make their buzzy music all morning until the flowers have disappeared, and then go off to find other friends on the lavender or the thyme. At least I suppose that’s what happens. It’s hard to know if they are choosy, but not hard to see that they are busy.

The reliable rhytmns of the garden are grounding, don’t you think? I try to spend some time in mine each day just sitting and noticing. I think I heard a mocking bird chuckle the other day, but of course I couldn’t be absolutely sure. I do know that in nesting season they can be very vocal about how close you might be to their babies. But right now the babies have left the nest and are out foraging for themselves, so the sounds of alarm and warning have ceased.

Nobody is rushing around in a panic in the garden right now. Even the cat is just observing, not chasing after anybody. “Be like the cat,” I say to myself. Stretch, rest, watch, yawn. I’m doing my best to even out life as we know it now and put panic, anger, that feeling of powerlessness aside, put out the fire in my hair and in my mind. If those things consume me, what purpose would be served? I’m meant to be here, now, and you are too. We have work to do. We need to nourish ourselves, care for our minds, our bodies, in the best way we know how. We are put here to experience peace, joy, tranquility, and the happy busy-ness of daily tasks. Perhaps we are meant to live in those spaces far more than we do. Let’s give it a try. Find a garden. Sit. Breathe.