Like many things in life, starting a garden can be both a blessing and
a curse. The lessons in life can be a plethora of bitter pills.
These bitter pills after being swallowed soon absorb into a subpoena
for life calling for a cease and desist to its trials and
tribulations. My bitter pills, as I have mentioned previously, were a
deep level of grass that needed de-sodding (even after double-digging
for 2 feet I could not get all of the roots), and possibly more rocks
and pebbles than soil, more clay than American Idol once had (it’s a
bad thing for me), and after the rains came I had a realization that
grass grows through a double-dug bed faster than America's rising
budget deficit. I turned my back on my garden for possibly 3 days and
the grass had already dug roots through my whole garden.
The hardest pill to swallow, however, was those devil creatures that
my neighbors let graze in my yard. The sheep weren't even my
neighbors'. They were from a souk outside our compound. Every bleat
they made unnerved me to no end. Wake up. Check the yard. Go to the
restroom. Check the yard. Do work on my computer. Wait 2 minutes
and run to the window and check the yard. But invariably I would
dissolve into a puddle of acceptance. Then I would once again wake up
and check my yard. The resulting chaos was not a garden that had been
eaten that met my weeping eyes. It was the burnt beans on Cinco de
Mayo. It was the fallen brethren on the battlefield. It was watching
Dancer in the Dark on repeat for a year. Sadness. Grief. Sorrow.
Misery. Depression. Then what is it you are supposed to feel?
Acceptance?
I endured the first encounter from those beady-eyed sheitan with a
fiery anger. I went to my neighbors and asked whose sheep it was.
It's not my fault I was told. The sheep are not ours. I fried,
stewed, steamed, and simmered until I had lost all of that vapor that
angered me. Then acceptance. It's just a garden. I have spent a lot
of time preparing it, but it's just a garden. Next season I'll do
better. Next season I will take more care. Next season I'll tend it
with loving hands daily. I put up with the second encounter from the
pentagram enclosed beasts of 80s heavy metal. I asked myself can this
happen again? I talked with my neighbors to see if they could keep
the grazing 7th Inferno's companions away from the garden.
I tolerated and stomached and swallowed the 3rd, 4th, and 5th bitter
pills of fallen brethren. I had told myself that it was an accident
this time. I told myself that the souk-owners and my neighbors would
be more careful about tying up the sheep. On the 5th bitter pill, my
sweet corn was gone. Same for my beans, my eggplant, celery, and my
bell peppers. The distant mirage of farenji vegetables I had not
tasted in what seemed like millennia evaporated into thin air. The
5th poisoned pill had dissolved into something important that I've
lacked most of life. That would be the patience to deal with things
that anger me. This is the understanding that can only be achieved by
turning the other cheek to see that it is only a triviality in life
that has presented itself to me.
After acceptance came deliverance. After the 5th time, my neighbors
finally took notice to how much of my garden had been eaten away by
those darkened agents of doom. One of my neighbors started to build a
small fence. Another pulled tomato plants out of thin air and planted
them in the vacant spaces. I was helped with the weeding that I had
resolved to not be vigilant with after so many bitter pills. I was
helped in turning my compost pile that had grown a protective sheen of
weeds. My neighbor told me that one of the things I thought was a
weed on the compost was actually a tomato plant. To which I replied,
no of course it's not. I didn't plant tomatoes. He insisted and sure
enough I smelled it and it brought back memories of my dad's constant
trials and tribulations in the Las Vegas heat to successfully grow
tomatoes. We replanted it in my garden. I realized that my compost,
on which I thought I had done a dreadful job of making (and I had done
a dreadful job) was actually composting. In a couple of months the
compost will be ready to put on the garden over winter. The soil will
be better. I will remove more of the deficit-like grass. Finally, I
will remember the most important thing. Planting patience.
hi from italy
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