A Time for Watering...

Friday, April 27, 2012

TGIF!!  Woo Hoo!  I got up with the chickens this morning and drove Michael to Providence Hospital in Waco for a CT scan. He had to drink this nasty stuff before the scan and during. Good news ... he survived the ordeal. The hospital was quite nice. We did miss the VIP treatment that Baylor offers though... We were spoiled in so many ways living in a big metroplex... We're back home now ... he wasn't feeling very good so is in napping. Hope that Dr. Gazi can find out what's causing all his digestive issues. Not fun to be sick most of the time. I took the dogren outside so that he wouldn't be bothered by their bouncing up and down on him!

Good Golly Miss Molly, it's watering time!  I was hoping that we would get some rain and I wouldn't have to haul my hose around but no such luck.  It does give me a chance to check my plants over and see which ones are in distress.  I think I'm going to have to move some plants so they get more sun.  My shade plants are growing like weeds despite all the pesky snails I saw around them.  Maybe I could gather them up, paint them and take them to a pet store??!!


As I wandered through the garden with my hose, I thought about how much plants are like people and relationships.  If I see a plant wilted and yellow and don't do anything, next week the plant will probably be worse off.  If it isn't tended to then, guess what?  I will have a dead plant on my hands and nothing I can do will bring it back to life.  To procrastinate when you know something is amiss is to invite a downslide...

Last Fall, I planted some no frost gardenias.  They were doing pretty good and I was thinking that I'd hit a home run.  Today was a different story.  I walked up to the first one and thought ... you're doing pretty good, I'll just give you a good drink of water.  I turned around to gaze upon the other four and thought ... holy cow, what's wrong with you guys??!!  They were wilted, had yellow leaves, and were looking pretty sad.  I watered them then moved on to the next plants.  All of a sudden, I stopped in my tracks and looked back.  If I didn't do something besides water, they weren't going to make it.  I ran to the storm shelter where I keep my gardening stuff and got some Ironite.  I sprinkled it around the plants, said a prayer over them and once again, moved on.  I will check them every day to see how they are doing.  As a gardener, I will check the Internet for advice and do everything in my power to help them along and survive.  I said "in my power" because some plants just flat out don't make it no matter what I do.

I think so many times we take the relationships in our lives for granted.  We look but don't see, our ears take in words but we don't hear.  Yes, we might notice a slight distancing but we move on telling ourselves that we'll address it tomorrow.  Tomorrow never comes and one day ... POW!  We experience the death of a friendship, a parent, a child, a marriage, a job...  We tell ourselves we never saw it coming and scurry about trying to make amends, trying to get back what we had...  Sadly enough, without regular checkups, watering, fertilizing, and attention, we loose the very relationships we cherish.  We grieve for what once was and beat ourselves up telling ourselves, "I wish I would have __________."

Busy bees aren't we?  We scurry to and fro keeping track of things that don't really matter in the long run.  We store up money for retirement forgetting that life needs to be enjoyed each and every day.  We collect and hoard ... "I'll need that someday."  We need to remember that our time on earth is temporary.  What we have will return to dust ... two generations from now, no one really even remember who we were.  Sad, isn't it... 

I truly believe that relationships are God's gift to us.  What we do with them is our gift to God.  I'm not one to have a lot of acquaintances.  I like to really know people ... what makes them tick ... what makes them smile.   Sometimes people are in my life for a season and that's okay.  A few weeks ago, a friend I used to work with stopped by the house before we moved.  I took one look at Tamikka, and we hugged and had tears.  Oh gosh, I realized how very much I missed her.  We used to get together at noon and have Bible Study.  We shared our pains and trials and made the most of that time together at GAIC.  What happened?  That division shut down and relationships were interrupted by lay offs.  I'm so glad for that time though and she will always have a special place in my heart.  (Giggle) Tamikka introduced me to wigs and to trying different hair styles ... she's had a big part in the transformation in my mind!!

Water ... hydration ... life.  How about doing a little watering and tending of your relationships this weekend?  Maybe it's time for a checkup and a little fertilizing?!  God willing, I am headed north tomorrow to watch my grandsons play baseball.  We'll hug and fuss over each other then they'll head out to play.  I'll whoop and cheer and they'll give me high fives.  Afterwards, we'll head out to celebrate their personal bests and maybe even share an ice cream.  When I head south towards dusk, I'll be bursting at the seams with memory making moments of a day well spent!

Miss Dottie

PS  If someone isn't watering you, water yourself!!  Take time to smell the roses and do something special.  How can you "bloom where you are planted" if you're parched, eaten up with pests, and sagging into your roots??  On that note, Toby is pestering me ... he's hot, dry, and needing a big bowl of cold refreshing water!!