Daffodil Time

Outside my window my daffodils are blooming. Over to the side of my yard my camellia bush is in bloom. My neighbor's forsythia and quince are already showing their stuff. Springtime, it looks like is on the way. Deep-South folks have an early spring but I just hope another frost doesn't kill the flowers that are already blooming. I have cut the monkey grass back down to the ground. I have raked leaves endlessly until the yard is pretty clean. It's time now to tackle my crape myrtles that have to be pruned back around Valentine's Day so they will look right at blooming time. I'm already fantasizing about the patches in my yard where nothing is planted. Before long I will be pouring over the seed catalogues dreaming of what my flower garden will look like. I've about given up on vegetables--between the squirrels and the deer (thankfully the antelope are not here and do not play) and the insects and the rabbits--I have just about decided I cannot fight that battle another year.

There are times digging holes, dragging around good dirt and compost and mulch--I completely lose myself. My wife can call and I hardly know what day it is or where I am. It's hard to focus in a world like ours. The too-much-ness of everything gets to most of us. I've lost too many good friends lately to the cemetery. I, like you, wonder if President Obama's stimulus package is going to work. If it doesn't--well...I do not even want to go there. My computer broke down this week and after making several new friends in the Philippines, I finally got a real live person to come out and fix the problem. But it took most of three days. I'm beginning to sound like some oldster who ruminates: "Remember when Coke was a drink and typewriters had ribbons..." But we can't go back. We just have to find a way to stay healthy and focus on something besides the madness out there. Someone asked St. Francis one time, "If Jesus was coming back today, what would you do?" And looking up from his gardening he said, "I would continue to hoe my garden." We don't have to dig in the dirt--but we all have to do something so that our souls can catch up with our bodies.