Sit a while.

Inner Flowers

“Don't go outside your house to see flowers.

My friend, don't bother with that excursion.

Inside your body there are flowers.

One flower has a thousand petals.

That will do for a place to sit.

Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty

inside the body and out of it,

before gardens and after gardens.”

A Place to Sit by Kabir (Translated by Robert Bly)

This is a day that only poetry can cheer. It's cold, rainy, gray and miserable. There are certainly no flowers outside; only wet streets with a forecast of wintery weather. It's a good day for gardens remembered. A good day to do as Kabir suggests, and go inside to find the flowers.

The first garden that comes to mind for me is my grandmother's in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Mama grew a huge garden every summer. Because we were a family who could not afford to take 'real' vacations, my mother and sisters and I went to visit the grandparent's house for two weeks in summer. Daddy took us there and came back two weeks later to pick us up. Mother and Mama spent those two weeks “putting up” Mama's garden, and making our clothes for the coming school year. Mama always had a few rows of flowers—mostly zinnias and cosmos—and behind those, all sorts of vegetables. Her cocker spaniel, Lizzy, loved to steal the low-growing ears of corn. She shucked and ate them as though they were simply the best things in the world—and they were. Those two weeks were a little oasis of good smells and snipped cloth and happy, cheerful things coming together.

Another garden that I remember well is Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where I spent a summer day about thirty years ago. There are beautiful formal gardens, conservatories, pools and fountains, in what was once the home of Pierre du Pont. My favorite part was not the gardens of rare species or the lavish conservatory, but the vegetable garden. It was the first time I had seen vegetables grown in raised beds and a variety of containers, and fruit trees trained along walls and fences. Also, there were flowers and herbs planted in among the vegetables and the overall effect was so inviting I just wanted to stay forever. I think if I were to live my life over, I would study horticulture. I can't imagine a more hopeful profession than forever gardening.

If you are caught inside today because of winter weather, by all means, spend some of it viewing your inner garden. Reminiscing and recalling days past, gardens past and what excited you about them. For us, here in the South, it's time to order seeds and get those little peat pots for starting them. Spring will be upon us before we know it. Just yesterday I saw the first jonquils poking their tightly wrapped heads through the mulch in my little garden. They're ready for Spring, and so am I.

                          In the Spirit,

                             Jane