Acceptance

Acceptance

"A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star."

Edwin Hubbel Chapin

"But there isn't any second half of myself waiting to plug in and make me whole. It's there. I'm already whole."

Sally Field

"Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there's all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens."

Arthur Gordon

"Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections."

Unknown

It is time to begin again, anew. The alien that has been living in my chest seems to have moved on. Grieving is giving way to acceptance. Journaling has been my best friend. Living simply and removing excess stress from my day-to-day is allowing my soul to heal. Suddenly, this week, I feel hopeful and am thinking forward. It's taken a lot of time and meditation to get to this point. My blog has suffered as has my writing and photography. However, internalizing and honest reflection has been good for me. Thank you all for visiting regardless in hopes that I'll share something useful. I'm coming back and I'm glad. I've missed me!

Enjoy these flowers - the poor, misshapen viburnum in our sad, boggy backyard is struggling to bloom and become beautiful this spring. I know how it feels therefore I celebrate it.

Come on SPRING!

DOUBLEFILE VIBURNUM

I'm ready, ready, ready for SPRING! I've been sick since the holidays and need some sunshine and flowers, butterflies, the smell of mulch and dirt under my fingernails. I want to work hard until my body aches with pleasure, and then stand back and water in new plants. I can't wait to clean out and clean up, rake and hoe. The best part is daily monitoring green shoots emerging, flowers unfolding. I'm even looking forward to the insects - preying mantis, spiders and all manner of beasties. Bring it on.

Despite the drought, most plants seem to have fat buds awaiting Spring's e-mail telling them to open up. The Doublefile Viburnum should be glorious this year. It's well over 8 ft. tall and loaded with the typical lateral budding. This winter I pruned out the weird watershoots and odd branching that had started to occur, and the result is a nicely shaped shrub with lots of open air for breathing.

VIRGINIA SWEETSPIRES

The sweetspires are doing fantastic. These are native plants and the drought hasn't bothered them one bit. In fact, I think they've thrived on the heat as I'm having to beat them into submission so that they won't take over the sidewalk.

BRYER'S GOLD POSSUMHAW HOLLY

My possumhaws are struggling. My golden berried possumhaw didn't berry at all this year, The Ilex Decidua berried weakly, but also bloomed at the same time. Not a good sign. Natives, they've been performing well but obviously they're struggling. Keep your fingers crossed.

ROSEMARY

Have you ever planted something in the wrong spot entirely? My rosemary is taking over the front walk. It's huge. I've pruned it so much it looks horrid. It's trunk is like a tree trunk. What to do? It's beautiful and I use it for cooking - my neighbors get clippings for their recipes. But it's HUGE! Proof positive that even Master Gardeners make mistakes.

SIBERIAN IRIS

You can't go wrong with a Siberian Iris. These are so beautiful. The lesson THESE guys have taught me is to thin them out yearly. My friend, Carroll, helped me last year and we were only able to hack out (literally) a small section. They are thick and entwined and it will take a stick of dynamite to separate them. So, you know what? They're on their own.

I've many plants that haven't been immortalized digitally but since joining Blotanicals I thought perhaps I should actually do a "gardening" topic instead of worrying about missing birds. The woodpecker is still on guard, still no signs of eagles, and the songbirds are elsewhere so I'm moving on. Time to concentrate on my yard and make plans for SPRING!