The Land of Milk and Honey

Plants are never stingy! They bloom to recreate but bringing beauty is the plants life. Dying to self in the winter and revealing the weakness the plant has not control over. Thirsty for the rain and craving the sun, a friend to the bees, and bugs, butterflies and birds. What would we do without the trees, plants and flowers, the grass that carpets our lawns and pastures? They become the color that makes this planet a continual display of magnificence.


Over the years I have known many people with green thumbs. People who would prefer having their hands in the dirt, working the ground than being inside taking in a good movie. Flowers, trees and plants have always inspired us. Generations have continued to name their children, streets, and cities after these living things. They make our world a better place to live.

Iris, Rose, Lily, Pansy, Violet - all names familiar to females and flowers, just to name a few. Remember Nightmare on Elm Street; a horrifying tale set on a commonly used street name, and the Elm in fact is a towering tree. Songwriters haven't been able to keep themselves from penning these things into their lyrics. Authors of book, poem and essay use these beauties to set scenes and draw you in. We are attached to these lovely beings in so many ways.

Somehow along the way men and women determined ways to prepare leaves, roots, fruits and vegetables to nourish themselves, and some have existed solely on these gifts. Apples, oranges, beans, turnips, tomatoes, all bring feelings to my taste buds. Aren't we spoiled?

I' m from Kentucky where my uncle Joe puts out a beautiful garden of potatoes, cucumbers, summer squashes, green beans, purple hull peas, and an array of other veggies that fill his table each year. Most families have a couple tomato plants in the back yard and if you don't you might come home to find a basket of produce dropped off by a neighbor.


Clubs meet to discuss how to decorate their lawns with bulbs, bushes, and blooms. It seems a natural and easy way to keep our head up. Professors teach students how to treat these organisms in order to help them thrive. In my mind these flowers, fronds, and limbs create a setting for our own lives, the background to our story. All living and active members of our habitat and what a wonderful habitat that is.

In the shade where the fern rolls out its arms, as if to stretch and wake up, creating a fan of green - a home and food for insects. In the fields along the fence row a family of sparrows nest among the thorns of blackberry bushes. Reminded only by the delicate white blooms of the Spring that soon these prickly creatures will be creating berries that will please their bellies. If the kids or dessert makers don't get to them first, that is. Perhaps the Oak tree gets a kick out of making our homes more energy efficient, if we thanked him for his shade, would he reply: "Glad I could help!" The weeping willow nestled among the canebrakes on the edge of a pond, a haven for bees as it swishes and sways among the water and world. The rose budding and adorning the gardens of castles and cattle farms, where would we be without these lovely additions?

Floral sofas, flower arrangements and still life's, wall paper, oil painting hanging over mantels depicting the mountains and plains, would be nothing without the turning leaves or leaning grasses. We experience this beauty so often that we often forget what a prevalent pleasure it is.

Did we ever leave Eden?


I have always loved being outdoors. Right now if you saw me you would think that I haven't slept in weeks, but in fact I have. But my allergies punish me for all this beauty I have to soak up. As sure as the ivy will slither up the chimney, I am reminded that each day we are looking at a painting so original that we forget that it's a package wrapped up just for us every day.

Whether or not you tip-toe through the tulips, swing from the branches, or smell the roses, soak up the beauty that is out there for you and me. Breathe in the air they create and fragrances when try to recreate. Treat them right because they have all been pretty good to us. And no matter what...try not to Pave Paradise to Put Up a Parking Lot! My Great-Aunt Ami, and I do mean great, always shared with me her responsibility to neighbors we share our space with. Gracefully attending her garden like a mother would a child she could bring life to lifeless and that plant would live to please again.

I am so glad that I was urged early on to appreciate our habitat. To love the Dogwood and Maple alike. I'm glad I was taught to know that a Mimosa was more than a brunch cocktail and that even though the ant marches on the Peonies, it's an act of love. I am finding out more and more as life happens that she introduced me to one of the loves of my life, by sharing one of hers.

Today as the wind whispers by, on it are the seeds of next year's fields and valley's and with those I send these words flowing out into the days and nights of a future forever changed by something so simple. Something that was here before we were and may be here when we are not. Something so intriguing that it has kept generations fed, shaded and happy. Eden is all around us.