The greenhouses and garden sections of stores are buzzing these days. Customers are roaming the aisles, admiring and selecting their choices of vegetables or flowers. The air is filled with excitement, as well as the bees and butterflies flitting among the blossoms.
Every May it is the same. Eager humans and hungry insects are enthused about the new life emerging with the season.
What is it that energizes us? When we were children we played in the dirt and sand, constructing roads, castles, dams and forts. We sloshed through mud, never missing a tempting puddle. We may even have helped our parents with planting the spring garden, digging the holes and patting the moist soil firmly around each plant, longing for the juicy tomatoes or sweet peas that would arrive in too long a wait for an impatient child.
There is still something rejuvenating about digging in the fresh earth, planting our chosen plants, packing the dirt over the roots and watering the earth to secure the growth of the fledglings into colorful flowers or tasty berries or vegies. There is nothing as flavorful as the strawberries, tomatoes or corn from our own garden. There is nothing as beautiful as the flowers that flow out of our planters, bringing color into our lives each year from our childhood and into adulthood.
The plants and the dirt bring calm and order into a sometimes confusing and noisy world. Roots reach into the earth, restoring familiar roots into our lives. Late in the winter we lingered over the seed catalogs, longing for the season of the rich, dark earth and twisting, root-bound potted plants, finally upon us in this renewing month of May.
Your blog reminded me of mowing my lawn, Mary. The month of May is when both humans and insects look for food from the land. I enjoy going to the Farmer's Market. But because my lawnmower was not working, I did not mow the lawn. But now, I should because the grass is taller, and it is an invitation for the insects to come and have too much fun under the sun.
ReplyDeleteThere are other roots we need to work as part of our sanity: the roots of education that is killing our country. Too many people lacking education because it has become a matter-of-factly business... we should plant the seeds of education to our children so then they can "germinate" with great knowledge, not only in the academics, but also in the real world.
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