« New York City :: 25th Anniversary | Main | Purple for Peace »
May 12, 2006
Gardening Angels
By DEANNA DAHLSAD
As a mother, I often feel like a gardener. I take the environment and
seeds I have been given, and I try to grow the best damn beings I can.
It's an awful lot of work -- dirty work too. As a parent, you've got to
be willing to roll up your sleeves, deal with manure and all manners of
sticky matters, and yes, spend a lot of time on your knees (praying that
you've done things right!). But like all gardeners, we know that
backbreaking effort is required prior to sitting back and enjoying the
oohs and ahhs of those who walk by.
Mothers and gardeners tend to their charges in similar ways.
Gardeners with roses know that when cold winds blow they need to
insulate their American Beauties with Styrofoam cones; when mom is cold,
she makes the kids put on sweaters.
Both gardeners and mothers spray to protect their lil sprouts from bad
bugs.
Gardeners remove unwanted plants which threaten to chokeout their prize
plants; moms weed out the bad seed 'friends' and other unsavory types.
Gardeners put up fences, scarecrows and if necessary, use wolf urine to
protect tender, vulnerable plants; parents set limits, use rules, and
monitor activities and phone calls to protect our children from those
predators who would feed off of our children if it weren't for our
watchful ways. (If it would work, I would succumb to spraying my own
mama-wolf-urine around to keep my own children from falling prey!)
Some of us even have late bloomers -- one bloom proudly displayed in a
season which would otherwise be dark is beautiful payment for such
diligence.
We mothers may not have the richest soil, the fanciest tools and
gadgets, or the space, money and support we dream of, but we still try
to raise the healthiest, showiest, sweetest smelling offspring around.
And, in the end, we hope our little sprouts have offspring of their own,
and they too grow strong and healthy under the watchful eyes of the
parents who tend to them.
Yes, moms are like gardeners. So we ought to know that every garden
sleeps, rejuvenating itself for the strong growth season ahead. It is
this sleep which allows for a fruitful harvest. But we as moms often
forget to take this rest period ourselves.
This Mother's Day, I hope each Mother out there takes the day for
herself to bask in the blooming faces of her children.
(This short rest is needed, for Monday will bring more weeding, tugging
and tending...)
Posted by photocartoonist at May 12, 2006 2:25 PM