The Time-Vested Garden

The investment, as of all pursuits,
that have, along with their intrinsic
value, returns far outstripping the
original vestment of time, energy
and devoted attention in a world whose
manifold pursuits are required for
undeniably practical purposes; this
growing pursuit relates to life-quality.

Time demands, leading to a scarcity
of that demanding and elusive element
persuades many to involve themselves
elsewhere. Yet doing so denies the
instructive urge recalling an indistinct
genetic memory of land husbandry
once so vital to human existence.

For us, now, survival no longer the
issue, gratified satisfaction, aesthetic
pleasure and lending ourselves to an
apprenticeship to nature, as fervent
accomplices to the verdant fecundity
of the growing season, feeds a passion.

Feeling the sun's warmth on the
firmness of a fragrant tomato ripe for
the table, the pungent green parsley and
sweetness of basil, piquant thyme and chives
garnishing one's food. Bowers of roses
blooming, a unified paean to the sun.

Peonies and Canterbury bells, lilies
and lilacs, their sublime and graceful
forms and rainbow presence, their divine
fragrance pervading the atmosphere,
bringing bees and butterflies, dragonflies
and songbirds to share in the plenty of
nature's bidding and our desire.