Gone
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
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COLUMN: CONSIDER THE LILIES
Gone
by Christine Berglund
tinyurl.com/c9l3zjt
Helen Collingwood? No. Frou-Frou? Can't be; it wasn't
created until 2002. Wabash? Nope. The beard was white,
not golden.
Fourteen years ago, I was given a magnificent gift. A
lady in the church was no longer able to care for the
bed of irises that she had collected and cultivated
over the years.
Some of the sad, shriveled rhizomes sat drying in the
sun, left on the lawn because there was no foster
parent to take them. Others were still in the ground,
waiting for someone stronger to lift the roots out of
the heavy clay.
My husband and I took pity on the pathetically
desiccated roots, and dug and adopted the rest of them.
Having recently moved to Tennessee, we didn't even have
a garden at the time. Living in an apartment did not
daunt us; we "parked" my babies at my brother's house
until we could find our own home a year later.
The iris is the State Flower in Tennessee, and it
usually thrives on the poor soil and neglect that we
sometimes give the plants. These adopted plants have
multiplied prolifically, and have given dozens of
people pleasure over these many years.
One particular beauty is a two-toned iris with luminous
white standards (the three petals that stand up) and
deep, velvety purple falls (the three petals that grow
downward), graced with soft bluish-white beards. The
fragrance is sweet and strong, and I adore it!
These irises are not as vigorous as their companions,
and although they seemed abundant at first, they
dwindled down as the stronger varieties grew over them.
To protect these treasured plants, I put them in their
own place in the herb garden, near a young peach tree.
They did well until the shade from the tree grew deeper
and prevented their blooming.
Now, you probably are thinking that an organized
gardener would have such an honored specimen marked.
But who said I was organized?
So it was with much joy that the unnamed celebrity
began blooming again last year! I knew which plant to
move to the safety of the sunnier spots in the garden.
That would have happened if I had the strength to
extricate it from a particularly large weed that had
wrapped its roots around my prize.
I set it where my Yard Boy could get at it after the
rain had softened up the hard clay, so that the plant
could be relocated without its disagreeable companion.
I told him what I needed, but he was busy. He was
working in a long bed of irises that were to be given
away, and – you guessed it – my valuable treasure was
put into a bag and brought to church with the more
plentiful irises and donated to a needy garden.
How often do we have more valuable treasures that get
neglected, forgotten, or that we just take for granted
until they are gone? Let us hold tight the ones we
love; even the husbands who goof up with our gardens,
or the children that drive us nuts.
When we communicate our love to them, let's be really
clear to them about their value. If we have activities
and traditions we love to do with our families and
friends, let's make room in our lives to continue that,
without letting other good things crowd them out.
"When you discipline a man with rebukes for
sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to
him; surely all mankind is a mere breath!"
(Psalm 39:11, ESV).
Value those precious moments and people. They might be
here today and gone tomorrow.
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