THE FLOWER GARDEN

By Mary van Balen Holt

Outside our kitchen door is a small garden space. Early in the spring, I loosened the soil and planted flowers. The snapdragons, asters, and pinks were seedlings. The rest were started from seed: bachelor buttons, a few marigolds, dependable zinnias. They fill in the empty spaces around perennial lavender, columbine and flax. I like flowers that grow tall, look a bit unkempt, and make lovely bouquets in the summer. So I planned and planted.

One corner bloomed first. A small cluster of blue fax and some yellow coreopsis were the perfect backdrop for bright red carnations. At the opposite end of the garden, an old lavender plant began shooting up fragrant foliage with the promise of bloom in its tightly closed buds.

After its first burst of color, the garden limped through summer. The asters, labeled "tall, perfect cutting," turned out to be dwarfed plants. Few flowered. The snapdragons did not bush out as they usually do, and only a few bachelor buttons germinated. A wild columbine, given by a friend, bloomed and threatened to take over and the zinnia, my least favorite, yielded the most blooms.

The garden looked spotty at best. I looked in vain for the flowers I had planted. Disappointed, I'd pick a bouquet of zinnias with a token snapdragon or two and place them around the house.

One afternoon, while staring at the patch from the steps outside the kitchen, I realized that if I would forget the garden I carried around in my head, the one I had wasn't so bad.

The zinnias added lots of color. The lavender had spread and was full of blooms. Even if few, the red and yellow snapdragons were tall. If trimmed, the coreopsis would bloom all summer. I just had to learn to love the garden that grew, not the one I planted!

Life does not always unfold as we plan or imagine. LORD, help me accept the imperfections in my own life. Teach me to embrace what I am given, and not waste time grieving for what might have been.

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"Life can be less stressful and happier if we remember one simple thought: we can't have it all, but God gives us all that we need."
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Shared by Joe Gatuslao

PRAYER

Lord, teach me to pray, Teach me to be always in tune with your will. Teach me to follow your will faithfully that I might be able to live my life the way it should be lived. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.