Living with Grace

The holiday season is a good time to reflect on the graces in our lives. I have a birthday in November, as does one of my brothers; my youngest daughter was born on December 4, and many friends are November-December babies. I live in a warm, garden-friendly area of California, and I travel to the sunny Texas deserts in the winter. I am relatively healthy and have a full family and a loving husband and friends. So yes, I feel blessed and content and I like to use this time to think about what I can do to maintain these gifts, but also to ponder what more I can do to pay back a society that has given me so much.
How can one not recognize that many people do not have what many of us have? What can we do to avoid taking on an attitude of despair? It is so easy to look at the big picture of wars, hatred, global warming, death of species and the horrendous actions and sufferings of the downtrodden.
We can assist in the areas that are available to us, we can use our privilege of voting, we can pray in whatever way appeals to us, we can donate time and/or money to those causes that call to our hearts. We can be gracious, kind, helpful and friendly to those who perhaps offend or grate on us. We can give of our own abundance. We can telephone a friend when it’s cold outside and bring him a heater if his house is too chill. This action ripples out and fills other cold, black spaces. He is warmed by our thoughtfulness and the heater we brought him. He can then pay it forward to others.
This is what I am paying attention to this season. I sit quietly and go through my mental address book and bring each person to mind. I see that person, his/or her face and think about the quality in them that makes them unique and that I love about them. Then I send them a ray of, what? Love, warmth, gratefulness? I do the same for family who are deceased. I remember what I can of them and the times, however short, we were together … Grandparents who died way too young and before I could have an adult relationship with them. I remember their stories, what I know of their lives, and how I felt when I was with them, and what qualities made them special.
These thoughts are my gardening column for December. I love to think about gardens, plants, animals, insects and all the wild nature we appreciate. I want to do as much as I can for them. My own little bailiwick is full of plants that feed the wildlife, especially pollinators and birds. Seeing them around me and knowing they are out there, this is some of what feeds me. I especially hope that my writing efforts help others to pay attention to the environment around them … to notice the disappearance of meadows and open space, particularly in our suburbs.
This vanishing habitat needs assistance from us, we humans. We need to fill our yards and gardens with flowers and plants that further the existence of our wildlife. We need to remove the lawns around us (other than a small area for our kids and animals) that feed no bird or insect and fill the areas with an abundance of flowers, shrubs and vegetables. Yes, vegetables! Why not create a little farm-ette where the kids can pull a carrot or a leaf of lettuce? They will happily eat their homegrown produce!
I wish us all a healthy and safe holiday season. Please write me with your own thoughts if you would like.
Contact me: jo*******@co*****.net.