In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.
My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.
The thoughts grow as freely and the flowers,
and the dreams are as beautiful.
~Abram L. Urban
One of the fascinating things about a garden is that it’s never quite the same from year to year even if nothing is lost or nothing new is planted. Depending on the variable nature of the weather and the seasons, there is always a difference from one year to the next in the way things grow and perform. Since a garden is a living, breathing entity, it is always in a state of flux, a continuous inconstancy of gain and loss, rise and fall. For example one never knows how many seeds will germinate and flourish or when they or something established will perish for one inexplicable reason or another. So, like people, a garden awaits another “voice” each year, and every ending in it and us yields a new and somewhat different beginning. Whatever was said and done last year is just that for both nature and humanity, and I’ve found it best to leave what was said and done in the past where it belongs. Neither do I spend time thinking about new year’s resolutions because I know that the seasons in my life are always different and therefore evoke different feelings within me and different responses from me.
Time and time again life rises from death, and when it does, one can feel the beating heart of heaven and hear the hushed voice of grace–that unchanging holy voice of grace, that sacred in-and-out breath of life, the Presence that captures me again and again and again. For me that is the only constancy, and I simply cannot live without it or the Ancient of Days by whose grace I live.
“The sounds, the aromas, the speech of life that infiltrates and seduces in heard and unheard melodies echoing from every life form to cocoon, to feed us, to excite us, to give solace, to renew, to cry in joy and sorrow, to create, to birth, to laugh at the sheer exuberance of feeling, I love.” ~Patricia at: http://theenglishprofessor.net/qualifications.php
Obey the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider all the great things He has done for you. ~1 Samuel 12:24 ✝
Sacred Touches 
Pingback: 242. For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice and to make an end is to make a new beginning. ~T. S. Eliot | Sacred Touches
Love this—and once again we are on a similar path–I spent this afternoon canvasing the yard for images for tomorrow’s post—and that imagery of the garden / yard always in a constant state of flux is so poignantly true.
As always Natalie–I love what you say, I love reading it and seeing my world through your eyes 🙂
love to you–
Julie
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Thank you so much for your encouraging words, Cookie. We are definitely kindred spirits about many things. I always look forward to your posts as well.
And you’ve been on a roll lately with some great ones!
Love and hugs, Natalie 🙂
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You are so philosophical on gardening, very sensitive to the changes. It takes a special person…
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Donna, my spiritual journey was derailed after the death of my father when I was 17 and for quite some time after that. It was first the birth of my child at the age of 30 followed 10 years later by finding a love for gardening that reconnected me with the Lord. And He has been a constant part of my life and growth since then. So it is to honor Him that I write about Creation hoping that others who have a disconnect, may be drawn into the web of His love and grace. I know it may sound far fetched but stranger things have happened. The Lord always works in mysterious ways. Blessings, Natalie 🙂
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It never ceases to amaze me how the garden wakes up and returns to a new splendour each spring, when it all looked so dead through winter. A garden develops with you as you go along and is continuously changing and full of little wonders. Aren’t we lucky to be able to have a share in it?!
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Indeed we are very lucky to be alive and to have a share in a garden! I can’t imagine life without one.
Blessings, Natalie 🙂
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