Much Needed Respite

Pollinators, pollinators everywhere in the yard! Bees of all shapes and sizes, butterflies and hummingbirds...Everywhere I look there is buzzing, humming and the fluttering of wings...swamp milkweed, green-headed coneflower, ironweed, joe-pye weed, cardinal flower, garden phlox all playing host to our tiny native wildlife...I feel like a shepherdess winding through the plantings, keeping watch over her flock, ensuring that what they need for life and health is provided.

I have spent much of my day outside, longing for peace and respite from the upheaval and concern of these tumultuous times.  Sometimes I go into the garden as a naturalist, to watch and observe the biological interactions. Sometimes I go for the joy of myriad colors, fragrances and bounty of life. But sometimes I wander into the garden because I am troubled, and it becomes a place of sanctuary, a place of refuge for me, as much as for wildlife.

Stepping into my yard, where the wild comes to live alongside me, does not remove the fears or losses of my life, but it does provide a space large enough to hold the accompanying emotions and ensures comfort as no other place can. The life found there pries my eyes off myself and points them to something greater than my worries. I am reminded that there are seasons and cycles to life and that calm really does return after storms. I am reminded that life goes on. The garden that was created to be a home for wildlife has become home to me and, surrounded by its abundance of life, I am blessed.