My garden is agreeable . . .

by Kim

"One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that

thoughts-just mere thoughts-are as powerful as electric batteries-as good for

one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get

into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If

you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you

live...surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or

discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time

and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two

things cannot be in one place.

"Where you tend a rose my lad, a thistle cannot grow."

- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Sometimes the ebb and flow of life will hand you a detour, a very disagreeable detour, and one that will require some off road driving with a few bumps.

And sometimes, sometimes it can be so hard to navigate disagreeable, especially when the path is not easily seen, and definitely not familiar.

Unless of course, you have an agreeable garden, which I very much do! Maybe not so much in the abundance of plants, but in the diversity of its patterns and rhythm, and in it's good-naturedness.

So every morning I start my day on my front porch in search of agreeable amongst the disagreeable even in a good natured garden.

I have a lizard that comes to greet me each morning waiting for me to spritz her favorite plant with water. A momma who feeds her baby birds that have fledged the nest and is no longer dive bombing me. For bees and butterflies and for caterpillars and toads.

And just recently I've had dozens of dragonflies hanging out in the garden like angels. Their wings shimmering in the gentle breeze like gold. Coming over and hovering right in front of me, one by one. And not just dragonflies, but damselflies too.

I've never seen so many in my garden before, and certainly not all at once for this long. I have had many interesting encounters with dragonflies in the past as well, so I decided to look up their Native American symbolism. And wouldn't you know the dragonfly represents transformation and life's ever constant process of change and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life. Things that make me go . . . hmmm.

So since two things can't be in the same place, I'm trying to give my attention to the rose. But the silver lining is that even if a thistle is found nearby . . . they attract butterflies!

What is your agreeable?