Wednesday Wonders: Who Speaks for You?

I just read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

A story from the point of view of a dog. It is an extraordinary wise examination of what it means to live, really live, as a dog or human. I found myself, quit by accident, speaking from the point of view of my newly planted lilac bush. Who would you like to speak for you?

The Lilac and The Gardener

There is enough water from the first rain to sustain the lilac freshly planted. She knew all she had to do was wait. She had faith in the Gardener who recently moved her for the final time from the deck to the prepared soil in the garden.

Everything rooted to the earth must live by faith and fate alone. What joy, what terror, what longing must be theirs.

To stay all day in one place to watching  the garden is the Lilac’s lot in life. The squirrel and jay wrestle life out of thin air, their silliness  amuses her. But Lilac admires the bark gray turtledove, who folds herself into the crook of the apple tree and stays so still she becomes the tree. Lilac wonders, was she once a bird? Then turtledove quivers herself free of the branch and is gone into the clouds. Perhaps she left when the cloud’s conferences became too raucous. Early this morning they began to argue about whether to be unicorns or dragons in December and about why they always had to do sheep shapes in April. Lilac whispered “it’s color that is important” but couldn’t be heard over the thunderous argument, that is when the welcomed rain came. Clouds, squirrel, jay and turtledove all moved on but Lilac stayed planted between the gregarious tomatoes and comfrey all gossip and elbows, crowding her with hairy leafs and reaching vines. Little does Lilac know the Gardener has an exit strategy for both unruly plants as soon as rain has passed. For now all she can do is send her, once bound roots, into the sweet soft soil, welcome her new neighbor the earthworm and lifts her heart shaped leaves to the rain. She was willingly took this all in and held it in her heart she knew that tonight would be a special night.

While lilac was being planted the Gardener confided. “You are so lucky I am moving you out here just in time for the meteor shower. You are facing Southeast right where stars will fall from the sky. They will move so fast you will have to watch carefully. The heavens will be alive with movement and you can see it all if you stand still and pay attention.” Lilac knew she could do this for the Gardener

When ones life is spent standing in one place movement becomes your passion, patience’s you craft.

After the Sun and the Moon left the sky, and the clouds settled themselves over the hills Lilac was alone in the dark. First there was the ordinary orderly sky promenade. Orion chased the Big Bear as usual, but then out of nowhere stars began to dance with wild abandon, unexpectedly flying, shooting, ricocheting from one place to another. Tethered to nothing. There was no plan, no order what mad Gardener was doing this planting? Would the whole of heaven be disturbed? How could the Sun know where to enter the sky in the morning? Lilac was afraid. But her Gardener told her she was lucky to see such a grand display. So that is how it happened that the Lilac stood patiently and watched as the sky bloomed above her.

October 24, 2012 © Carol Carlisle