Surprised by Jack

May 26, 2009 — 4 Comments

fairy luI live in a fairy forest. It’s a minuscule woodland, and I am its caretaker, while my five-year-old Luthien fancies herself its fairy princess.

As the keeper of the itsy-bitsy forest (comprised of three towering evergreens and the woodsy floor beneath them in my front yard), I have been busy planting shrubs and perennials purported to enjoy such a shady, piny spot. I’ve also, of course, been occupied with pulling up weeds to make space for those plants and manage the appearance of my garden-forest.

My gardening style is a bit wilder than the wood-chip-mulched norm. I rarely rake the pine needles or remove pinecones, and to remove weeds, I use my hands rather than a spray bottle. My definition of weeds is rather loose. The clover and the violets and the purple-blooming creeping Charlie, even the dandelions and the plantain are all possible keepers in my gardens, depending on their placement. It’s like sculpting – in one place, that dandelion needs to go, but somewhere else, it fits just right.

This morning while the kids perched on the neighbors’ steps to watch some city employees trim trees on the boulevard, I sculpted (i.e. weeded) my forest gardens. And to my delight, I discovered a new Jack-in-the-pulpit volunteer! It’s the third one I’ve found in the gardens, none of which I planted. I’ve also discovered catnip and milkweed volunteering in ideal spots in my gardens, and this spring a shrub I had left alone the last couple years, not sure what it was or where it had come from, opened for the first time into delicate white blossoms, revealing itself to be a honeysuckle.

Had I been overly ambitious to eradicate weeds and mulch thoroughly, I wouldn’t enjoy such surprises. While I am happily the keeper of the fairy forest, I recognize it lives and breathes and produces beauty with or without me; and it’s a joy to work with it rather than reign over it.

So bring on the Jacks. May their tribe increase. And I’ll be happy to kneel in my gardens, take my time pulling weeds here and there, and enjoy those moments revelling in the wild beauty of my fairy forest.

Is This Thing On?

May 22, 2009 — 3 Comments

Testing, testing, tap tap tap . . . [clears throat]. Um, okay, hello everybody, I’m starting a blog here. Less than a year ago I bought my first laptop. Less than a month ago I joined Facebook. I still don’t have a cell phone.

I’ve been writing, however, for a long time. I’m counting that first sappy poem I wrote at Christmas when I was eight years old, and all the painfully cliche but moments-of-brilliance songs and essays I’ve labored over since then.

But after all these years I still haven’t been discovered, hauled off to a publishing house or a record label by some undercover scout, and launched to stardom. What gives?

So, I’m laying aside my prima donna crown and joining the ranks of the common bloggers. Stepping out of my ivory tower to stand on the virtual street corner, adding my voice to the throngs of excellent, pretty darn good, average, promising and pathetic writers already there. I’m one of them, somewhere on the continuum, and we don’t need to decide just where right now.

Lately I’m a voracious student with a hungry mind, and discovering that the more I learn, the more I wonder. Ironically, I thought I had come up with that catchy little phrase – only to google it and discover the long line of smarties who used it before me, making it just another cliche.

Oh well, it’s still true, and the best I can say for now. It’s what I hope to write about here – the things I’m learning, the questions I’m asking, the wonder of it all (thanks, George Beverly Shea).

Hey, this is fun!