Tending Gardens

We all tend gardens. The question is what kind and how well?

I thought about that this morning as I walked past my flower tub on my way up the driveway with the can for the garbage man.

From a distance, I admired the pink geraniums and red petunias.

Upon a closer look, I was shocked to see blooms at all – considering the tub's dry, weedy soil.

I looked across the road at my neighbor's vegetable garden. Every day I see her out working the soil, weeding and watering. Her plants thrive because that's where she spends her time.

So... where do I spend mine?

Lately – in my bedroom office, sorting through old photos of my husband's ancestors.

Soon I will lead his dad's cousins back to Norway to their grandmother's birthplace to meet their cousins in her homeland. We plan to present the family with a booklet of their American relatives. I'm offering the ladies options.

And so, I weed through pictures, looking for good quality ones representative of family life.

Just as garden plants sprout, bud, bloom and produce fruit, so do families.

The evidence is obvious in the youthful appearance of newlyweds, portraits of their small children and candids of the group as they all age.

Photos show the progression of the young ready to step out and bear their own fruit; And of the aging couples with their physical signs linked to wisdom.

I choose a few, scan them onto my computer and then layout pages – as a gardener lays out her produce.

Whereas she might preserve her work in canned or frozen batches, I produce my results on the printer – one page at a time.

Yes, we all Tend Gardens – whether of plants, children or otherwise.

And as a wise, old neighbor used to say: I'm just grateful they thrive in spite of me.