Bramblings: Dahlia Awakening

By Becky Nelson
Bramblings
Many times, I have urged you to take a break, enjoy the little things in life, sit back, relax, take a moment to think or to let your mind empty, and just be. I haven’t listened to my own preaching for a very long time. I am letting the world spin on around me while I am taken up in the whirlwind. I haven’t seen the forest for the trees, and have let my work life be my only life. I even had a couple of health scares earlier in the year, yet I had forgotten to think about me and mine. My grandkids are growing up and c hanging and becoming amazing people while I am stuck in the gardens and the orchards, my kids are aging and changing and I am missing their growth, and I am determined to change that track. All because of a simple sight on a simple day in the same simple daily routine. 

It took a sight during a vegetable picking session to make me sit back for a moment. We have planned a three day getaway to clear our heads and be able to focus more clearly on the rest of the year ahead of us, and there is a mad scramble to get enough picked ahead to keep the store stocked and hook onto the camper feeling prepared to go. I am a control freak, and not having my hand in the every day goings-on is hard for me. I am trying to relax the reins and loosen my own harness, and these little trips are the first step. But back to the sight that made me realize I am missing what is important, I had just finished picking some lovely green peppers and was heading out of the planting when the dahlias my son had planted for his own and his wife’s enjoyment caught my eye. The astonishing beauty of the flowers held my attention long enough to set down the box of peppers and grab my phone to take a picture.

The flowers spoke to me. Unnoticed in the garden until I caught a glimpse, it was otherwise destined to show its brilliance to the sun and the sky and then fade away with petal drop and forgottenness its’ destiny. But I caught it in its moment of glory, and stole its image to remind myself of just how beautiful we all are and how we need to enjoy each others’ brilliance every day before it is gone.

I learned earlier in the week that an old acquaintance had passed away a full two years ago. I remembered several interactions and feelings welled up for a time, making me worry that I wasn’t paying enough attention to those around me. After all, he died two years ago and I hadn’t paid enough attention to even follow his travels since retirement. I need to be better. I am apt to wrap myself up in seed catalogs, weeds and business needs to the detriment of my personal life. I need to give myself a break. I need to make a new resolution this October to stop and smell the roses…or look at the dahlias as the case may be.

Part of my commitment to a few minutes to myself every day is a project sponsored by the Library Arts Center in Newport called Inktober. Folks are urged to take a word prompt and put pen to paper with a little ink drawing. I’ve had a wonderful time so far, just a few days in, and have dutifully posted my creations with the appropriate hashtags, even scoping out others drawings and appreciating their own responses to the prompts. Thank you to my daughter who is having a family art challenge with spouse and kids also drawing each day. If it weren’t for her urging, I never would have found this little nugget of self-help and moments of personal quiet time. I may make Inktober a daily ink challenge for myself. I may even pull out the jigsaw puzzles and a crossword puzzle or two. I may dig out the chess set or the Scrabble board or the backgammon set and try to tempt my spouse into taking a couple minutes now and again as well. Maybe I’ll start being a real friend to my friends and go to lunch or dinner or get togethers instead of work, work, work. All work and no play makes me very, very dull.

It’s easy to preach to others about how they should take time to themselves, and about time for the physician to heal herself. Wish me luck on my old-lady new-found pursuit of time to appreciate what is worthy of appreciation on a daily basis. I hope you can do the same. I’m going to peek at that dahlia photo again…