Entropy

There was a time when Carol and I were avid gardeners. Not the fruit and vegetable kind, the flower, greenery, shrub and tree kind. When we moved out to what Mike calls BFE we gave up that part of our lives. On the farm in the midst of the prairie the battle was only with raccoons. Here in the woods everyone shows up and trys to eat what you plant. Ground hogs, raccoons, but mostly deer. Shrubs, trees, flowering plants, greenery, hostas, they seem to like everything. My older brother now owns the place where we had our gardens. Mom lives across the road so we are over in that area on a regular basis. We have watched as what we planted, loved and cared for, spent countless hours weeding, mulching and watering, drove thousands of miles to purchase, descends into chaos. Mother Nature has no need for the order of man. Cares nothing for his vision of beauty. Where we cared for the weak and delicate she slaughtered them with ease.

That was then:

 This is September 2013

 I do want to say something about the tree pictured above. If you go back and look at the picture with the little girl in it that is the pine tree in front of the chair. Carol and I will always refer to it as Jade's tree. Jade was a foster child and received the tree on Arbor day in a McDonald's drink cup. Carol was transporting her for a visit with her family and she asked if Carol would take it home and plant it since she didn't have a home. We thought it would go in the ground and wither and die. It did not and is our reminder every time we see it of Jade and the children who have no home to call their own. The little girl in the picture is our eldest granddaughter Shekinah. She is now 17. The tree pictured below is one of the ones in the background of that picture. It was about 18" tall then and is about 12' tall now.

It is a lesson in life. What you care about, work toward and love may not be shared by others. They appreciate the beauty while it is there but lack the willingness to do the work to maintain it. While you may think what you do is lasting realize that the sony lyrics are correct. "All we are is dust in the wind"