On Planting Sweet Peas and Falling in Love
From Mabel Barbee Lees book "The Gardens in my Life"
In her chapter "The Quickening" Mable tells us about the first house in town that she and her new husband lived in. Finally it was time for planning and planting and falling in love!
"Howe dug a trough for sweet peas along the sunny wall of the house. He had learned from his father just how to do it. " Plant them deep," he explained, "and when they begin to push up, cover them over with fresh soil and force them to drive their roots down for more strength. Follow this routine two or three times until the sun is warmer and the danger of frost is past. The sprouts will be greener then and the tendrils tough enough to hold fast to the chicken wire which we'll have ready for them to climb on." What frustrations, I thought, for those determined sweet pea seeds!"
What an insite this woman has on loving.
Further in her chapter she tells us;
"I began to realise that gradually I had fallen in love with him. It wasn't the kind of thrilling romantic love that I had dreamed of as a college girl. It was a feeling of far greater depth with elements of respect, forebearance, kindness, and honesty; and above all humor. Howe had the gift not only of being able to laugh at himself but to highlight my own amusing and often ridiculous pretensions. He taught me to try to look at life through the "tinted crystalline of humor"-" it is a much more durable garment," some philosopher has said, " than romance- more capacious and affords greater freedom of movement."
In this age of quick fixes and social separation due to all the distraction of electronics in our lives it is hard for many to even conceive of an enduring and lasting kind of loving relationship. Most are in a big hurry to get it now! Feel the feelings now! Have the experience Now! How many do we know who are willing to dig the trough to plant the seeds of their relationship let alone continue to add soil to the plantings to build up the strength and staying power for a relationship that will last.
On Valentines Day this year my husband and I will be celebrating our 36th wedding aniversary. It is interresting how our relationship has evolved over the course of time. We met, married within 2 months and began our journey of learning to love one another. How simplistic my idea of married love was back then. How soon I learned to put more layers of nurturing and strengthening soil upon the roots of our relationship so that it would be an enduring one. How quietly our deepening understanding of one another, in the dark nurturing of that soil, grew, it was barely discernable until one day the dawning! The adventure has been fraught with all the challenges that this life can throw our way and yet in the challenges there is always that decision to just throw more soil upon the roots and see if we can get deeper roots to form and we have always been rewarded for the effort. Truely loving and being truely loved in return has been our reward.
In her chapter "The Quickening" Mable tells us about the first house in town that she and her new husband lived in. Finally it was time for planning and planting and falling in love!
"Howe dug a trough for sweet peas along the sunny wall of the house. He had learned from his father just how to do it. " Plant them deep," he explained, "and when they begin to push up, cover them over with fresh soil and force them to drive their roots down for more strength. Follow this routine two or three times until the sun is warmer and the danger of frost is past. The sprouts will be greener then and the tendrils tough enough to hold fast to the chicken wire which we'll have ready for them to climb on." What frustrations, I thought, for those determined sweet pea seeds!"
What an insite this woman has on loving.
Further in her chapter she tells us;
"I began to realise that gradually I had fallen in love with him. It wasn't the kind of thrilling romantic love that I had dreamed of as a college girl. It was a feeling of far greater depth with elements of respect, forebearance, kindness, and honesty; and above all humor. Howe had the gift not only of being able to laugh at himself but to highlight my own amusing and often ridiculous pretensions. He taught me to try to look at life through the "tinted crystalline of humor"-" it is a much more durable garment," some philosopher has said, " than romance- more capacious and affords greater freedom of movement."
In this age of quick fixes and social separation due to all the distraction of electronics in our lives it is hard for many to even conceive of an enduring and lasting kind of loving relationship. Most are in a big hurry to get it now! Feel the feelings now! Have the experience Now! How many do we know who are willing to dig the trough to plant the seeds of their relationship let alone continue to add soil to the plantings to build up the strength and staying power for a relationship that will last.
On Valentines Day this year my husband and I will be celebrating our 36th wedding aniversary. It is interresting how our relationship has evolved over the course of time. We met, married within 2 months and began our journey of learning to love one another. How simplistic my idea of married love was back then. How soon I learned to put more layers of nurturing and strengthening soil upon the roots of our relationship so that it would be an enduring one. How quietly our deepening understanding of one another, in the dark nurturing of that soil, grew, it was barely discernable until one day the dawning! The adventure has been fraught with all the challenges that this life can throw our way and yet in the challenges there is always that decision to just throw more soil upon the roots and see if we can get deeper roots to form and we have always been rewarded for the effort. Truely loving and being truely loved in return has been our reward.
posted by Eileen | 11:21 AM
1 Comments:
You are insightful, and very blessed, Eileen!
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