And Make Our Garden Grow

As much as I like to lie (or is it “lay?” – I never can remember) in bed in the mornings, I can’t. Well, I mean I could but Lizzie, our spoiled corgi, won’t let me. Around 5:00 (give or take a second), her tummy clock goes off, and she’ll hop on the bed – well, actually, we have a ramp so she’ll launch herself on the bed. This usually wakes me up, since I am a very light sleeper. Anyhow…she’ll stare at me while I pretend to continue sleeping. After a moment or two, she’ll get impatient and start pawing at me. By this time, I’m wide awake…and really there's no point in continuing the pretense. Occasionally, she’ll give a big yawn which turns into a high husky “ARROOO!” So, I get up…..take her to the back yard to pee…(Lizzie, not me), start a pot of coffee, and feed her.

After a couple of cups of java doused with International Delight Southern Pecan Creamer (yeah, yeah….I know I shouldn’t…calories, calories!), I put Lizzie into her little purple harness, and clip on her purple leash (it’s is her signature color!) And off we go for a half hour walk around the neighborhood as the sun comes up.

This morning after our walk, I started pruning back the large singed leaves of our giant bird of paradise by our front door; many people mistake it for a banana tree. Anyway, I quickly filled the large green yard waste container. There’s plenty more pruning to be done both in the front and backyards (see my prior entry PLANT MURDERER for details)….but I limited my efforts to what will fit in the can. I just don’t like seeing gardening debris piling up on the ground.

Afterwards, I hopped on my bicycle for an hour and rode around the neighborhood. I can ride up to 90 minutes before I start chaffing and who needs that? My dismal horticultural endeavors were still on my mind….so after about my third orbit around our little gated community, I started taking a closer look at the front yards of our neighbors. Normally, my eyes gravitate towards the perfect greenery on display….the lush rose bushes, the fruit-laden grapefruit trees, the tall stately palms. But this time, I started to notice how the summer had taken a toll on the landscapes….the dead trees, the cooked hedges, and scorched lawns. I won’t say that it made me happy, but it did put my shortcomings in perspective. The grass really wasn’t greener on the other side of the fence.

Like those plants, life has been (and continues to be) very trying and challenging for some people, like me (and you?) Sure, there are some folk that grow (and even seem to thrive) during this period, but I don’t know what their secret might be: obscene amounts of wealth? Strong medications?...Lobotomies? But I would venture to say that for the most of us….well…LIFE SUCKS! And all you have to do it watch the daily news to know that it’s rough going out there. I mean it sucks more that the academic year when I student taught 8th Grade English Grammar – not speech, not theatre, not even English Literature. – GRAMMAR! The best I can say about that period is that I survived it, and I didn’t have to diagram sentences. Maybe I did, and just repressed the memory. I wasn’t meant to be a middle school English teacher. An actor coach, definitely and to paraphrase Miss Jean Brodie…”Give me someone at an impressionable age, and they are mine for life. ...”

And like a garden, we have to prune and tend our “garden of serenity” (is that a tortured metaphor or a simile? See! I forget all the grammar I taught!). Ugh! I sound like a Hallmark Card! Let’s just say that there really is only so much we can handle at any given time. We can chop and machete, and snip, and weed whack, all day long, but there’s really only so much we can process at one time. It’s best to take a slow and gradual approach to tending our gardens. Let’s be kind and patient with ourselves, and not expect that all our problems can be solved at once.

I think the song, Make Our Garden Grow by Leonard Bernstein & Richard Wilbur, from CANDIDE sums it up best:

You've been a fool

And so have I,

But come and be my wife.

And let us try,

Before we die,

To make some sense of life.

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow...

And make our garden grow.

I thought the world

Was sugar cake

For so our master said.

But, now I'll teach

My hands to bake

Our loaf of daily bread.

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow...

And make our garden grow.

Let dreamers dream

What worlds they please

Those Edens can't be found.

The sweetest flowers,

The fairest trees

Are grown in solid ground.

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow.

And make our garden grow!