Along the path of life we learn many things. Isn’t it fun to realize that you learn without realizing you are learning until at some point in time that knowledge surfaces? Not like learning to tie your shoes or how to chew. One you learn and one is instilled in you.
I have wondered a few times why when I tie my shoes I double knot them. Pretty sure it was a self-taught thing as my other half would kid me by jokingly giving me grief about doing my Trina knot. Today you can buy shoes that have laces that are pre-tied and have a design that you can just slip into and go. Where were those when I was 5 learning to bring laces up around the tree then bring the rabbit down the hole to make a bow?
Learning is a lifelong adventure. Gardening is an everlasting and never-ending class. I feel comfortable that if I needed to I could grow my own fruits, vegetables and a cow. It is however more feasible for me to go shopping and buy the little bit I need.
Over the years constructing a greenhouse was discussed more times than the number of zucchini one plant can produce. For those who don’t know, a zucchini plant can put out more zucchini than you can give away and still have friends at the end of a gardening season!
I’m glad a greenhouse never did grow on our path. It seemed to me that at the beginning and yes at the end of every growing season we had more going on than we could handle. A green house would have just added to that list. So just gardening “naturally” was plenty. But! Yes a green gardener’s “but.” Now I don’t even grow veggies, I grow flowers. Flowers make me happy.
That’s where I was recently. Looking at a flower that happily grew in one of my beds this summer. It’s a daisy. A doozie of a daisy. This is the second year my daisy and I have had together. The first year was not looking good for Daisy as it was puny and scraggily. Blossoms turned under and the delicate white petals pointed in all directions without any real plan. Each flower looked like something out of a bad “B” movie. You know where monsters have trudged along heading to the haunted house to scare all the teenagers.
My hard head along with luck, water, faith and yes laziness that kept me from tearing it out, were what brought Daisy back this second year. This was one time my lazy posterior was advantageous. The daisy came back and has been a happy sight all summer.
In learning about this plant, I have noticed it and I are a bit alike. I learned that as the flowers get tired and wither I am supposed to “dead head” which means cut off the little left over head to make the rest of the plant keep flowering and growing. That is a bit like life right? As things move along we all cast off, “dead head” things to move along and continue to bloom and grow. OK. DO NOT take that literally and dead head people for goodness sakes.
I have dead headed several things over the past few years. I feel there are more things I need to cut off to make my life bloom and become something that will keep growing and becoming — whatever I am supposed to become. Then this happened yesterday.
I was out dead heading Daisy. Readying for the quickly approaching cooler time of the year. ICK! As I was cutting I brushed against a new blossom just getting ready to bloom and the stem bent. The bloom hung there like a dead fish. Dang it.
I finished the job and the last thing I did was to cut off that blossom to bring it inside. Yes I am one of those women. I have always brought home lost cats and dogs and lambs so yes I cut off blossoms that have grown to be flowers but some monster trudged along and… Well meet the monster; me.
I couldn’t bring in the broken one to be all alone could I? Of course not. I cut another one so there were two very short little daisy flowers trying to bloom in my house. Both were closed up tight when they were plopped into a glass of water two days ago. Yesterday I noticed a few petals starting to stretch out. Today? They are giving me a show of thanks. Opening up, saying to me, “No matter how hard something tries to dead head you, keep your head about you, keep a friend close and you will happily bloom.”
Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Her book, “They Call Me Weener,” is available at Amazon.com or email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com to get a signed copy.
