"Self pity" grumbling…
Can be a "bummer".
There’s enough folks in the Cannon Valley who show me that I don’t have any excuse to grumble.
That’s kind of a bummer.
There’s nothing like the captivating feeling of self-pity to cling to.
The only problem is that it seems to suck the life out of you too.
Folks like these:
You see we’ve got people like Kenyon’s police chief, Lee Sjolander, who as an 11 year old tried to protect his siblings when his mother and her boyfriend (after her 4 husbands) got “high”, drunk and was fighting.
And there’s my neighbor, Ray Wynne, who lost both his legs in an accident and while in his ’80’s he can still out-do me with his many projects. And his wife, Mariellen, who keeps up with Ray.
And young ones like Tess Pfohl learning to make a life after surgery for cancer and losing the use of her legs.
And like the man I wrote about in a column who was dying but still taught others with his philosophy of no self pity... just the recognition of these little words... “What is... is.” And so you just go on and try to make things better.
Here’s another one…
So today is my turn to tell you about another example. It’s Audrey McKeag out west of town. For years she has spent her summers caring for her beautiful flower gardens.
I’ve wanted to see these gardens but never made it in time.
Now was the time.
She has lived on the farm for a long time - including back in 1988 when a tornado hit it. She and her visiting grandchildren were nestled in the basement for safety.
Nowadays Audrey has had to cut back her enthusiasm for growing things because of health issues and surgery.
But she has found some ways to work around this.
To “smell the roses...”
And so a couple of weeks ago, a few gals and I headed out to her farm to “smell the roses” - so to speak.
Audrey can’t bend over to plant the little seedlings any more so she explains that she just “pokes a hole and drops the plant in!”
And a lot of the flowers are in pots and planters to be easier to care for.
Here are some of her other ideas.
She has outfoxed the deer who had been devouring her hosta plants by hanging a bar of Irish Spring deodorant soap near them!
And did you know that a parsley plant attracts the larvae stage of Monarch butterflies?
And by letting the flowers dry on some of the annuals who won’t come up again - you can save seeds to plant next year.
Her gardens exhibit old farm equipment that has been turned into use as flower containers. The deep one was used in past times to heat water and scald hogs. (I didn’t need to know that!)
Some of the visitors recalled that over the years they had felt “guilty” when taking a break to look at flowers... to just enjoy their presence... but they were all glad they did.
And when Audrey takes a break and rests in her garden she likes to remember a favorite verse - Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”
You know... as I recall the people in this valley... and in the world... I think they have taught me something good to hold on to.
Video available at www.paulrosie.com or www.cannonfallstv.org or Youtube: Along the way with Rosie.
