Mom’s
Magical Garden
Whenever I change a
house (by the way dear husband and I have changed four in four years) my Mom’s
expert-interior-designing-tips prove very helpful.
Our standard conversation,
Mom: Beta, now just get some plants and you’ll be
ready to flaunt your house. (Totally expected)
Me: I want to, Maa but alike
you I’ll get attached to the plants as well. What if we have to move into
another house? I can’t leave behind my plants to die. (I play the emotional
card)
Mom: You can donate them
to someone who likes plants, right? (She is always ready with solutions)
A mother to Mother
Nature, She is!
And I strongly believe
God was of the same opinion which is why, “The LORD God made all kinds of trees
grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”
(Genesis 2: 9, The Bible)
She finds it difficult
to relate to people that don’t grow plants. She often questions, “How can they
not see how therapeutic it is; to sow a seed, witness the wonder of the fresh
new sapling, water it, and nurture it, to experience it grow into a tree?”
No wonder, whenever,
she feels overwhelmed with home chores or depressed she steps out into her
little garden, feels the plants, talks to them and becomes rejuvenated.
You heard me right; she
talks to her plants. So every year when Christmas is at hand she talks to the
floral plants and requests them to blossom flowers on Christmas day. And, I am
yet to understand how, but they do; miraculously.
My brother and I always
mock her addressing, haphazardly grown trees in our backyard, as jungle. But a
recent incident left us dumbfounded.
In the busy crowded
area that we stay, it is so rare to see our national bird but there it was; a peahen,
roaming around freely. It is a recreational stop for a group of monkeys too. They
pay a ritual once-in-a-week visit and get to feed on vegetables from our
fridge. Undoubtedly, we have to admit that what mom proudly calls her jungle is
in a true sense one.
In the front yard stands
a Karen-tree (don’t know its botanical name). This tree has grown out of an
unwanted branch thrown away in the colony, rescued by Mom and planted in an
empty space.
I always admired its
fallen flowers giving an image of a bright yellow carpet spread on the floor.
But during my recent stay at “Evergreen Villa” (My maiden house) I noticed how
this done-away-with, once-useless branch is now a home to so many different
species of birds and animals; crows, cuckoos, humming birds, hawks, sparrows,
doves, seven sisters, nineteen gale, woodpeckers, chameleons, squirrels, honey
bees to name a few.
This led me to research
about importance of trees in the Bible and the following are the findings:
“He is like a tree
planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf
does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” Psalm 1:3
“For there is hope for
a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will
not cease.” Job 14:7
“Hope deferred makes
the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12
“The glory of Lebanon
shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place
of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.” Isaiah 60:13
“The trees once went
out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over
us.” Judges 9:8
