Friday March 31 2017  JUST MARK MY WORDS!

Just mark my words.  March 2017 is officially over as of midnight tonight.  And you know what that means!  Yes, yes, I know, I’ve said it many times.  It means Christmas is right around the corner.  Whoever it was that coined the phrase “that as we age time seems to speed by more quickly” was right on the mark.  Not only do the months fly by but the days seem to dissolve before they really get started.

 

YOU MUST BEGIN WITH SELF

Kathleen Martens

March 31, 2017

www.visionsofpoetry.com

 

Time is short

Live it well.

In the blink of an eye

A story to tell.

 

When we begin

And when we end

We have no course

Our life to lend.

 

Life is accomplished

As seconds tick by,

So worry not

How quickly it flies.

 

We each have purpose

For our numbered days,

Live with intention

And not in a haze.

 

What is our worth

In eternity’s plan?

To share God’s love

With our fellow man.

 

Make your life count.

Help those in need.

Give comfort to the hurting.

And the hungry feed.

 

When you see wrongs

Look first on your shelf.

To make any changes

You must begin with self.

 

Enjoy this last day of March.  Spring is on the calendar and the hope of it coming to Wisconsin is budding in my heart.  I am beginning to smell it in the air.  If weather is predictable it is still six to seven weeks before I can plant perennials and set my pots of geraniums outside.  The geraniums are such a joy to me during the winter months as they silently grow in our sunroom.  It is with reluctance I relinquish them to the outdoors. 

Each day I go into the sunroom, touch a few leaves in each pot and stroke their velvety texture.  I speak to my geraniums as I caress them; and a bit of spring comes alive in my heart regardless the cold that surrounds our dwelling.  This year’s batch did not bloom much through the winter. 

The fall before I left on my trip two years ago I finally retired the pots of geraniums that I had taken into the house for about nine or ten seasons.  Some of the pots were large and set on the floor.  The foliage literally grew as high as my chest.  The leaves were huge and the blossoms were the size of a large man’s fist.  It was constant upkeep as we have light carpeting and the spent, deep red blossoms would fall.  I would carefully snip back the blossoms before they passed their prime.  One particular day the room was an entire bower of red from all the huge blossoms.  Remember that this was in mid winter and once I bring the pots into the house I no longer feed them until spring.  I just water sparingly and defoliate spent leaves and blossoms.  On this particular day I had a large brown paper grocery sack and as I broke each blossom off and dropped it into the bag I counted them.  All total I snipped off 206 blossoms in about one hour.  And there were dozens more in stages of blooming.  I have photos but they were taken so many years ago I do not remember on what hardrive they are stored.

When I arrived home in July of 2015, the geranium bug bit me again.  It was late in the season and I had to look long and hard to replicate the color of red that was a close match to my faithful plants of the past.  I found the color but it was not the same variety.  They did not bloom nearly as profusely that first summer.  I cared and nurtured them but it was to no avail.  I faithfully brought them in for the 2015/2016 winter season.  In April of last year we were gone for several weeks so I carted the plants over to a friend’s house and instructed her to not over-water them.  Some were quite large and all were bushy with lots of leaves.  When we arrived home my friend was embarrassed to give them back.  All that was left of the geraniums were the branches of the plants WITHOUT ANY LEAVES.  Literally, some of them did not have any leaves at all.

I brought them home at the end of April, cut them back, and coddled them by allowing their oversaturated soil to dry out.  My friend told me she watered and watered them and the leaves still yellowed and browned and dropped off.  Oh well, after allowing the roots to de-saturate those little stems perked up, the leaves sprouted, and the geraniums bloomed all summer.  And now those same little plants have weathered another winter indoors and as of right now they are healthy, hearty and huge.  It is about time to cut them back and it always pains me to do so.  I so look forward to their blooms this summer.  They have become my friends.  And I think they like me too.  They always remind me of my mama’s gardens.

 

Thank You God for blossoms in winter.

Thank You for the texture of a geranium leaf.

Thank You for the pungent, identifying fragrance that geraniums exude.

Thank You for memories of gardens past.

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!  GOD BLESS YOU THIS SPRING DAY!