FRONT ROW SEAT

Something weird is going on

In my garden.

You may remember from year’s past

That I have an errant Hollyhock.

Instead of growing in the back of the bed

It keeps plopping itself at the very front of the border.

It has done this for several years.

Each of those years I have dug it up

And moved it to the back

Where tall things are supposed to live

In a traditional perennial border.

Yet, year after year

It has had a front row seat.

Imagine how pleased I was

When this spring it stayed put

In the back.

And then…

This happened.

A bird must have dropped a sunflower seed

In the exact same spot

Where the hollyhock grew.

I should have just pulled it

When it was little.

But my gardener’s curiosity

Always gets the best of me.

I had to let it grow

To see what it becomes.

Since I’ve never planted 12 foot sunflowers

I had no idea that it would grow

SO BIG.

Should I chop it down

Cutting it off from it’s moment of glory?

Can’t do that.

I can’t help but wonder

What is the lesson here?

What is it about this particular place

That always grows such giant plants?

Are they trying to tell me something?

Something I really need to learn?

Maybe the location has something to do

With getting my attention.

It might have gotten lost

Buried deep in the mass of Coneflower and Phlox.

It had to park at the front to be seen

And heard.

I wonder if we let this happens with people?

Do we get so busy that we let friendships

Get lost in the Coneflowers?

Gardens…the perennial teacher.

Gail

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” –Karl A. Menniger