Eye of the beholder

It has been since February that I have written and I hope to change that . We built a new house last year and this year my youngest daughter, who lives here in town too, has lived with us with her family until their's was recently completed. Being in a new house means I get to design the gardens again as I did our first home here in " God's Country, Idaho ". Being an artist I see gardening like a blank canvas, except that in gardening, I am the brush. I put things in place but God is the artist that brings flowers out of seeds, trees from seedlings, etc, etc. Seeing my work turn into beauty is so exciting as well as extremely satisfying. The anticipation of new plantings growing into beautiful landscape features is something that keeps me looking forward to tomorrow. Maybe a new shoot will show itself above the earth, peeking out for a ray of sun. Or a new leaf, a new bud. What color is it ? Will it be like the photo in the catalog or on the label ? I have long ago learned that a garden is never completed, only a work in progress. If it has been completed then one is not a gardener. God did not create man in the universe, give him the keys and tell him to lock up when he is done and then walk away expecting man to take care of himself or herself. And so it is with gardening. When the garden landscape is planted, the work has only begun and will continue until the gardener is no longer. Plants die, they are are born, need to be pruned to show them how to grow, sometimes seeming very cruel to do .They need constant care, nurturing and love. Sometimes they need to be moved because they are in the wrong place. The gardener knows, he or she can see it is not thriving the way that he feels it should. It may mean the plant needs to be humbled, made smaller, uprooted, but the gardener knows that as the plant realizes it is now in it's rightful place it can thrive and send out all kinds of new growth. The photo at the beginning is a look at a part of my new garden by the back patio. OK, so much for metaphors, which I could go on and on about. But bringing it back to what I get out of it, when I see what beauty there is in nature in just my little part of the world, it's hard not to be awed. All I did was manual labor. I did not cause the seed or sapling to grow but I am blessed for my small part in the process. Walking among the brick, flagstone and gravel pathways I get the sights and smells that make me pause, slow down and have that moment of awe. I have had many years of fast paced jobs that allowed too little time to eat a meal . Too little time to really see the roadside or watch the continuous parade of faces and shapes in the clouds. It was easy to do when I was very young and I did it a lot, maybe too much to suit my parents. But life has a way of filling up ones minutes. Now the kids have lives of their own and although there have been challenges I do try to set priorities for myself that include concern for others in my daily quiet time with my Maker,taking care of myself and soaking in as much as I can of my surroundings. One of the many things I learned on some of my foreign travels is that in many other countries, mealtimes are not primarily to fill one's hunger, they are times to celebrate life, share thoughts, appreciate the food we have been blessed to have. Slow Food it is called occasionally on TV because of the way of preparing and eating. As an example I recently experienced one of the wonderful peaches we can get here in the grocery. It was my devotional time first thing in the morning. I grabbed a fresh peach to eat while I got my books together and sat down. This is my quiet time I give to myself each day when I am the only one up yet. Since it was very early and still, the thought occurred to me that instead of wolfing it down so I could get to my reading, and fresh peaches of this quality would soon be unavailable, maybe I should try to get everything out of the experience I could. So I shut my eyes and decided to try to notice everything there was to this peach. Taking a bite I felt the texture of the skin and immediately the flush of flavor and juice in my mouth. I chewed slowly, trying to distinguish as many elements of the taste that I could. Also, I had never before noticed that the skin of the peach, when fully ripe and carefully chewed, was almost sweeter than the flesh was. I hope I can encourage others to sometimes take as much time as they can possibly get to see how much they can experience when taking a bite of a peach, creme brulee, sea scallop or take a sip of German Riesling wine. There is so much to say " wow " about ! I hope that others take care to have their moments of " wow " too. Don't do it for me, do it for you. I think " WOW '' is my favorite word. Until next time, Ralph.

Hope

This morning we had some more snow. Now here in the Magic Valley we don't usually have a lot of it but in the mountains to the north, south and east that's a different situation. Where I like to ski about 50 miles east of here they have had over 80 inches of snow in the past 7 days. I have always loved seeing it snow. Years ago it could also mean expense in getting country driveways and roads plowed out, anxious hours wondering if family would get home safely from school or work, etc. And on the farm that I grew up on, it meant more work taking care of livestock, chores, etc .From a purely selfish standpoint, the more the better now that I live in town. But I am also a person who suffers from lack of sunshine. I get tired, a little depressed at times and maybe a host of other symptoms. So about now I am looking eagerly through plant and seed catalogs and maybe travel brochures to places like Southern France or Tuscany in Italy. I have thought about a couple weeks in one of those areas, soaking up the intimate culture of one of the hilltop towns I saw and visited a few years ago, shopping in local farmer's markets for ingredients to meals that I could prepare with the helpful tutoring of the owner of the villa I would be staying at. This all comes from some research and communication with someone who owns just such a place there. But the reality is that I am not sure if we will or can do something like that, at least not soon. My wife has had quite a time of it this past year, beginning with a bout with breast cancer, followed by severe difficulty with medication following the surgery. Then there was a fall, and more pain and then a frightening incident one day upon my arrival home from an appointment where she had an " event " that led to an all day visit to the emergency room and countless tests, etc. So for the last 9 or 10 months, little else has mattered other than taking care of things at home , seeing that she got rest and visits to the doctor,etc. Anyone who has been a caretaker in such situations for a child, parent or spouse, doesn't need me to tell them that at times this is difficult territory to pass through ! But we do what needs to be done , right ? And so, here we are, most likely headed to spring and holding up before us the concept of " HOPE ". To me, hope is the possibility that things will be better, maybe much better or at least more tolerable. That something promised might actually still come true or be possible. We all hope for different things at different times. A better job, less sickness, a possible trip, the birth of a child, a loving spouse where there maybe was none, courage, a spring with time to enjoy the smells and sights of flowers and gardens, a fishing trip, hope for more than just this life on earth. The list is endless and different for us all. But there is always " hope ". I for one have had my times when the mention of the word made me think of the word " scoff ". That even thinking of hope seemed kind of far fetched. But after many years I have had uncounted times that the only thing that got me through it was " Hope " and upon reaching some " other side " of a situation, I found that I should never lose sight of the possibilities that hope can give us ! This year we have a presidential election and the word " hope " is being used quite often in campaign speeches. Now I have my own feelings about that and who might be able to accomplish things that are so desperately important to our society , as well as bring our world a little closer to peace and cooperation than we have now. Since this is not a political blog, I will not go into that any more other than to state that my belief in all of this is pretty much summed up in the " Sermon On The Mount " and if you care to, you can go there in your bible and look at it in more detail. So, getting back to " Hope ", it has been sung and spoken that we live life in seasons. Spring is our birth, Summer is our young and productive years, Fall is our having raised families and Winter our retirement years and the time near our end. Well, here is my take on that. I believe that not only is there a cycle of life that goes around once in the previously stated sentence but we experience that cycle over and over again. We have our spring when all is fresh, starting new, hopeful for life anew. Then comes summer when there is are lots of good things happening, being planned , anticipated. Times unhampered by cold and snow, windy rainy days, clouds of darkness, illness, stress, or shattered hopes. Fall arrives and we start getting ready to put away summer activities, lawn mowers and outdoor activities, etc. or maybe our lives slow down and we are resigned to live out our lives in our current situation, good or bad. Or maybe we have just gotten comfortable in our situation and decide there isn't much more to life than we have experienced and so we put away dreams, store them, maybe, just maybe we will get them out and review them. Then leaves fall off trees, garden plants brown up, temperatures fall. Finally winter is here and ground is frozen, we need more clothes to keep warm. Guess that what is is what there is and will be. But think about it, if there were no winter, we would have no spring. If there were no dark then there could we would have no light. And so that is not all there is . When winter comes it is a clear and wonderful sign that spring will soon be here .There is a cycle and we can learn that one thing gives us hope for the next. That's how I like to look at it. So, in the next " season ", maybe I will make it back to Tuscany or The South of France. Or maybe make it to the mountains just south of town. That's ok too. With " Hope ", anything is possible. Within a Christian faith, " Hope " can mean justice can still prevail and that things can get better than we could ourselves imagine. Never stop dreaming. If I were not a dreamer, life would have been very hard at times while growing up, wondering if things would get better when they were bad. But there IS always a " spring " after the winter. And in the cycle of life, I prefer not to think of this as my " Fall " of my life, or even my winter, but only the time just before " Spring ". And I dream.