...getting ready for summer #2:

How are you doing with keeping your promises?

        This could start out sounding morbid...but it isn't...so hang on.  Way back in January of 1980 one of our closest friends, to that point in our younger lives, was found to be dying of a malignant, inoperable brain tumor.  It was a hard series of days for all of us, beginning with his precious wife of only seven years

        As that very odd tumor began to take away his senses...sight, speaking, etc....one of the last conversations I had with him, when his voice was only a whisper, went something like this when I was sitting by his bed late one night (we, and others were taking turns being there with him 24/7):

        "Wes, I don't need any flowers at my funeral.  Tell people as often as you can to buy flowers for the living...not the dead.  Will you promise me you'll do that?  Tell them to give flowers to the living and celebrate their life."

            And yes...I did make that promise.  In fact, the deep grief from that loss, though not lingering much today, still informs me of that promise.......often.  As my good friend and I talked into that night, in between his increasing exhaustion, I thought to myself, "As consistently as possible, I want to make certain that, even if it's only one daisy or posey of some sort, there would be a real flower in our home for Judy...celebrating her life...and ours...and the lives of others we know and care about, at depth."

        Now, I haven't kept that 100%.  Those who know me best know I can fail at keeping promises some time...rarely intentionally...but circumstantially.  BUT...rare are the times in our home you will NOT find a flower of some sort somewhere in our living room/family room/kitchen area.......celebrating life.

        Two of the things that renew my wife's soul are flowers in the garden...and bubbling brooks we discover when hiking somewhere (...she'll even pause to soak up that sound by a bubbling fountain, like today at a garden center we visited...).  So...every Spring...there is a ritual we observe, some time in late May...and that is getting our flower beds planted with the prospects of beautiful flowers.

        Yesterday was that day for us.  Last year we did the same...and a rousing hail storm shredded the flowers...and we didn't replace them.  Ugh.  This year, I've already promised Judy that if any hail takes them out, we are replanting within hours.  Yes, ma'am!!!

        And so, as I/we planted away yesterday, I was grateful to still be keeping my promise to my friend, Rex.  Seeing the delight in my wife's eyes made it, indeed, a very good day.

        Now, if we can just keep the dang rabbits (...refer to the 1st in this brief series of getting ready for summer posts...) from making their brand of tossed salad out of our endeavors.  So come by some time and sit with us and sip a drink and soak up the pending beauty we anticiapte will be showing up day...by day.......by day.

Curious question:  Are there any lasped promises you need to pick up on and be digging into again in your own life and relationships...no matter when you made that good intentioned promise...years ago...or maybe even yesterday?

 

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Comments

[Jeff Giles]

A ring of lovely marigolds can provide some measure of natural...and beautiful...rabbit resistance. Just a thought.