"Grandma's Garden"

Every blade of grass has an Angel

that bends over it and whispers,

"Grow! Grow!"

~The Talmud

       I watched my grandma hoe the clay soil in my garden. "Don't see how you grow anything in this,"she mused.

       I stared at her in awe, capturing the moment in my memory forever.  Wisps of her silvery hair sneaked from beneath her headscarf as her thin torso bent down to pull a fistful of bindweed.

       "This stuff will grow anywhere," she laughed. "Even in this soil."

       Although she lived alone on the farm she and Grandpa had settled a half century ago, she still maintained a garden that could sustain most of the County. Some of my favourite summer childhood days had been spent in the garden helping her pull up plants she identified as weeds, or planting vegetables and flowers. She had taught me that gardening  wasn't only about cultivating plants, it was about cultivating Faith.  Each seed planted was proof of that.  When I was seven I asked,"Grandma, how do seeds know to grow the roots down and the green part up?"

       "Faith," was her answer.

       When I grew up and married, my husband recognized the impression Grandma's dirt left under my fingernails and in my heart.  He supported my dream to live outside the city, and our two-acre plot had a horse, a dog, cat, rabbit, six hens and, of course, a large garden.  I was privileged and overjoyed to have Grandma working in it.

       Grandma leaned the hoe next to the fence post and walked to my flower bed to help me plant the daisies she'd brought from her garden to mine.  She didn't know I was watching as she patted the dirt around the base of the plant.  Waving her hand in the sign of  a Cross above it, she whispered, "God bless you, grow." I'd almost forgotten that garden blessing from my youth. Ten years later,  those daisies still flourish.

       Grandma is tending God's garden now but still influences me daily.  Whenever I tuck  a seedling into the earth,  I trace a small Cross above it in the air and say, "God bless you, grow,"

       And in quiet times, I can still hear her blessing,  nurturing my faith.  "God bless you, grow."

~Unknown

Beannaichte'

20 July, 2012 

~ In Loving Memory of our Mother...

~We Remember...We Remember.

~In Dedication to my Sisters, Sharon & Karen..."God Bless You, Always!"

~Our Thoughts and Prayers are with the Families and Friends of those who were slain, and the many that were injured, in Aurora, Colorado. May each of you find Peace and Healing, during this time, and the days that lay ahead.  This is my hope  for each of you, and our fractured World... ~Beannaichte'