Life or Death

The frogs are newly noisy in the evenings so even though the calendar disagrees, I say spring has sprung! When I am able to meander outside during the day, I find myself looking for signs of life, whether they include bulbs pushing up through the soil or buds ripening on the fruit trees. I also find myself more aggressive in shooing the hens out of my kitchen garden because if my garlic gets dug up there is going to be major amounts of chicken pot pie on the stovetop, pronto!

I do have some areas in the gardens that cause me pause. I’m just not sure if particular trees and whatnot are going to pull through and live, much less thrive. When I gently bend back the twigs, some are, well, green and “bendy”……and some just sadly snap off. So I just keep them in the ground, tending to them, waiting. Waiting to see if life prevails.

This wee magnolia tree I rescued from an overgrown patch of woods last fall. Lichen is growing all over it (is that bad?) but several branches have buds. I think. I’m almost sorry I moved it when I recall the beautiful white flowers that originally came forth through the brambles. I’m waiting to see what happens.

This crab apple tree was taking over all of the sunshine in my kitchen garden, and up here in the Pacific Northwest, we need all of the sun on our vegetables that we can get! So I moved it last fall to a place where my chicken tractor had been parked. Unfortunately, I didn’t think until later about all of that great (and hot) chicken-poo that was now mixed into the soil. I think I fried half my tree. But I’m waiting to see what happens.

Roses got moved as well. I love roses. But I do wish they loved living in maritime weather; it is always a struggle to keep their leaves unpunctured by bugs and blackened by mold. I’m sure using a chemical solution would be helpful (and I have done so in the past) but now that I’m keeping honeybees I’m a lot wiser about that sort of thing. So I just live with whatever holes the organic essential oil sprays can’t keep from occurring. And yes, I’m unsure how the transplants went. I’m waiting to see what happens.

My daughter’s been making valiant efforts to save two runts from the two litters of rabbit babies (kits). She’s been successful (we think) on saving one by helping the mom to nurse the wee thing, but there is another one who the mother has completely rejected and won’t let nurse. My daughter’s been struggling with fostering the runt on the other doe. It’s unsure what will happen to the little one. I’m waiting to see what happens.

Do you see a theme here? I have no guarantees about how my efforts will play out when I care for anything that’s been gifted with life. All I know is that life is beautiful, and whatever the future holds, I will always be grateful to God for having even just a small part in the wonder of it all. Even if a lot of it seems to be…waiting to see what happens.

Blessings,