Delinda's Gardens books and advocacy
  • Home About Delinda
  • Lies That Bind
  • M'TK Sewer Rat: End of an Empire
  • M'TK Sewer Rat: Birth of a Nation
  • Power and Circumstance
  • Something About Maudy
  • Summer Chaos
  • Janette
  • Blog
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Advocacy
  • Contact Delinda
  • Enchanted Forest Florals/Calico Gardens
  • Road Trips
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Advocacy

Creating beauty in life

5/6/2013

4 Comments

 
Picture
It’s hard not to become a philosopher when living in a garden.  This morning a particular play of sunlight on a rhododendron caught my attention.  I looked closer and saw the flowers reflected in my pond. 

I remembered this place when we first looked at it.  The real estate agent brought us up a steep barely passable dirt road to the top of a hill.  When we stopped at the top we were confronted with thick forest and a tangle of down limbs and logs. It was a sick monoculture.   The trees were spindly and spaced too close together.  The trunks were bare while the branches lurked in little tufts a hundred feet in the air at the tops of the trees.  We went away.

The location of the property was handy for my husband’s work, but it was also in the arsenic shadow of the ASARCO copper smelter that polluted the air, land and water of this area for a hundred years.  We looked at more properties. They didn’t suit our needs.  We looked again at the ugly piece near the ferry and asked for an analysis of the well water.  The water was free of arsenic and of excellent quality.  I had some ideas for dealing with the arsenic in the soil.  We decided to buy the sick, ugly piece of land.

Thirteen years later I look out at my glorious flower farm and remember that drab piece of property with it’s sick trees.  I think life is what we make it.  Sometimes our circumstances are drab, sick and ugly.  However, we do have the ability to create beauty around us.  We need to know ourselves and know what we like and what our limits will allow us to do.  Working with a firm grasp of our reality we can create beauty whatever our circumstances even if that beauty is only in our minds.

Today, now, each of us can take the first step to creating beauty wherever we are.  Focus on what is beautiful, peaceful, loving and gentle.  As I avoided harsh chemicals in creating my oasis of beauty, we need to avoid harsh thoughts and remarks in our mind.  As we focus on peace, shutting out the lies and clamor of the world we will begin to create beauty around us.


4 Comments
Marta Merajver-Kurlat link
5/6/2013 06:12:31 am

What a great reflection on beauty! I am specially thankful for the conclusion, as it's one of the hardest things to remember and practice amid the din of everyday life. Thank you, Delinda!

Reply
Micki Peluso link
5/8/2013 03:38:36 am

Lovely post. The daughter I work with just loves to garden--it's her passion and my husband loved planting food gardens, but I hate gardening. It kills my back and nothing ever grows, so I have a lovely houseplant garden inside. Plus I can't be in the sun with the heart meds so I get to enjoy the beauteous work of other's toil.

Reply
Delinda Mccann
5/8/2013 03:46:37 am

We are raising our veggie beds up to 16" to save our backs and cut down on weeding. I love eating garden fresh veggies more than I hate weeding.

Reply
Sandra Nachlinger link
5/9/2013 12:04:25 pm

Beautiful post. I enjoy gardening and hope to expand my plantings to include some veggies. There's nothing quite as delicious as a homegrown tomato! But with all the trees in our back yard, there's not a lot of sun and our Pacific Northwest summers aren't always cooperative in providing sufficient warm, sunny days. I like the idea of raised beds and will definitely look into that. Thank you for the suggestion and for this delightful post.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Delinda McCann is a social psychologist, author, avid organic gardener and amateur musician.

    Archives

    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
    Gardening
    Politics
    Social Justice
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly