The Water Garden | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Water Garden | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Bahlke
09/09/21
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“The zinnias this year were slow to bloom," I say out loud to no one. My voice falls silent as my thoughts go inward. I talked to them, watered them and yet they took their time. It is mid-September, and they are just now bursting forth with their long, lanky stems and beautiful colors of pink, red, and orange.

My eyes trail off to the snapdragons that surround the water garden in various places. They were a surprise; they returned following a cold winter although they are annuals, not meant to return and bloom again on their own. To see their familiar leaves sprouting awakened hope in me. They have steadily bloomed throughout the summer and have caused me to smile when I am feeling down or troubled.
Sunflowers are there as well, their seeds likely dropped by birds in flight or by our resident chipmunk who eagerly packs his cheeks with seeds left in feeders. The sunflower’s bright, round faces that look up to the sun remind me that this too shall pass; this ache, this sorrow will leave me perhaps altogether or at least become less in its wounding.

The lilies of orange have finished blooming and stick like stems have replaced their beauty, a reminder perhaps that not everything in life is beautiful or as we think it should be. A reminder that there is a cycle to all things and that death is found in nature as well in those who inhabit the earth. What is physically lovely and beautiful doesn’t remain, does not last forever.

Small carnations in pink and white were placed there by me in late spring and the wind that blows scatters their scent into the air and lifts my spirits. A smell that brings back memories of times and moments gone by and of the people I love and cherish.

I can see her there still, sitting in a lawn chair, with a green shirt on, and a smile on her lips. She was happy the day we celebrated dad’s birthday in our backyard near the water garden. She hugged her great grandchildren, laughed during small talk, enjoyed cupcakes and bean soup and commented on how pretty everything was. The day was perfect, the weather, the company, all of it.
Before leaving that day, she hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear how much the party meant to dad. I did not know that three weeks later, she would leave us. That heart monitors, oxygen masks, and final decisions regarding end-of-life care would be made. I had no idea and that wounds me still.

The wind chimes that adorn the oak tree near the water garden are ringing out now. Their music fills me with both joy and the bittersweet melody of what loss and pain feel like. There is a honeybee flitting about, making its way from one flower to the next and occasionally a hummingbird dips and rises between petals and stalks.

I have been thinking about the land of milk and honey that has been promised for believers. The kingdom that one day awaits where beauty lasts for eternity and where reunions turn into forever. God has promised this to me, to all, who believe and call on Him. He has given a life to us here on earth, that requires us to be patient, to find surprises that wake and comfort us, to look upwards and let the sun warm our faces and fill our beings with the warmth of reassurance. He calls us to bloom in a variety of circumstances and places, to leave kindness in our wake, to find peace even in times when it feels difficult, and we feel hollow like the stalks of the tiger lily. He has set in place promises that His love endures forever and that things will be okay if we but trust and follow. His voice can be heard in nature’s melodies, the soft billows of wind, and in windchimes that dance and ring.

God gives us memories to comfort us and sometimes to shape and change the person we are and who He wants us to become. God provides new life when we think it’s not possible. God prepares us for the future, the days and moments to come, even though we do not realize it. The zinnias have bloomed for me on this day, when I have needed it most, when I needed reminders of God’s promises to keep me growing and living forward.

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