My neighbor deflected the compliment; answering, Well, I am hopeful, when some remarked upon my friend’s goodly gardening ambitions. 

She is a prodigious and productive gardener; plus she generously shares when she divides her bounty. 

No garden or  flower bed ever just materializes, does it? 

No. 

All industry must be excited by hope. — Samuel Johnson: Rambler #117

Sweat equity, imagination and HOPE  are as necessary components of flowering gardens as soil, weather and a trowel.  (Plus a few shekels  to invest in seeds and new plants!)

Also, another fundamental component of a praiseworthy garden is time. Some plants won’t  burst forth on cue; they emerge when they are ready. Although the flourishing of seeds  may be  predictable, the  process is mysterious, and not always in sync with what seed packets predict. Nor do plants!

Two Cases in Point

 I inherited  some plants, I call lilies of the valley in the side bed. For the past five years, only their leaves showed up.

hopeful

First bloom in FIVE years

This year,  the dainty flowers bloomed, albeit only on a few plants, demonstrating that in addition to time, mystery is a component of gardening as well.*

My modest and hopeful gardening neighbor  reported that twenty-seven years ago she planted tulips around  the base of a plum tree that subsequently died a few years later. She removed the tree; yet, the tulips’ foliage grew through the grass for almost three decades. Then, this year a trio of yellow tulips burst forth — gaily  demonstrating a botanical lesson  beyond my pay-grade.  

hopeful

Better late than never!

A Hopeful Goad

My friend’s off-hand comment  about being hopeful and hardworking is a good way to start  a new week in  these new but still uncertain times. 

“Give it time,” are three words I wore out in 2020! Still,

Hope means expectancy when things are otherwise hopeless. –Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) 

Hard work still needs HOPE, and being hopeful  cultivates more than ambition.  

It is not the end of joy that makes old age so sad, but the end of hope. Jean Paul Richter 

Here’s hoping we both get good work done, dear reader, with TIME to dance! 

Hope is hearing the melody of the future. Faith is to dance to it now. ~ Ruben Alves


 

hopeful

Oh! for a bouquet like this!

 

 

Share this: