Embracing Weeds and Wrinkles

I just celebrated a birthday.... 59 as a matter of fact.  I’m not ashamed to admit my age because it really doesn’t matter.  As I get older and increase in years, gray hair (thank you, God, for good colorists), wrinkles (from enjoying way too much sun in my fair-skinned youth), and joint pain (from way too much gardening), I can’t think of anything I would have changed or done differently.  I wouldn’t have traded those sun-filled days by pool and beach for anything! Those are the best memories I have!  The joint pain is proof of my love for gardening (my garden spaces are really quite beautiful) and I won’t give up the spade and shovel until my fingers are completely frozen.  The gray hair is easy to cover up.  So I’m thankful for good health and I will wear these signs of aging with pride and I’ll keep on plugging away until I literally can’t anymore. Age truly is just a state of mind and, as I am no longer young, (well, Aunt Blanche thinks I look like a teenager but she’s 102) I’m not yet old and really am at the most perfect age in life! 

I love life.  It is the most perfect gift of God’s grace; to know that He loved me enough to want to create me in my mother’s womb and plan a meaningful life for me to glorify Him. And...to top it off.... His Perfect Son died in my place for my sinfulness, and now He’s given me eternal life and hope that only those with this unique relationship with Him can ever possibly understand.

Life and health and earth and living and relationships and EVERYTHING we can humanly perceive are marred. We all know it.  We all experience it.   We plant lovely gardens and soon every ugly, thorny, and twisting vine and weed take over and choke out the beauty.  We plant and tend our gardens but fight off

mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, gnats, poison ivy.

We play outdoors in sun and surf and eventually get

burned, wrinkled, cancerous.

We eat the bounty of the most prosperous country on earth and get

fat, sick, diseased.

We nurture and invest ourselves in friendships and family and relationships only to be

betrayed, hurt, broken.

Whether or not you accept the notion of our increasingly warming earth, the fact is, it is moaning and groaning from the toll of 

modern living, pollution, greed, materialism.  

In a garden long ago, there was one perfect man and one perfect woman in a perfect love relationship with their Father and Creator in a perfect garden in a perfect world for a perfect eternity. All was marred, twisted, turned by a willful disobedience and a desire to become “little gods”. We are all guilty and we are all paying the price for it, including nature.

God has already told us in His word, that the earth WILL cease to exist, by His will, not ours.  So I don’t understand why there’s so much arguing going on by differing parties and points of view except that we all want to blame everyone other than ourselves for what is happening on this planet. I guess I really do understand because most people don’t have a personal relationship with their Father and people still want to become “little gods”.

So......until God is finished with me on earth and takes me home to eternity, I think I’ll choose to live a joyous life.... be it home on this old farm property or at 10 Cuttin Sage on Ocracoke Island and I will choose to embrace all the imperfection......

even my weeds and wrinkles!!!


For my followers.... stay tuned for another adventure on Ocracoke Island....soon!

Have to post photos.....and every photo has a story to tell...

Ruth Buzzy and Bee-atrice continue to do quite well.

I started a honeybee garden.  It will evolve over the next few years but I have started with Bee Balm, Zinnias, Sedum, Guara, Tall Phlox, Rosemary, Bellflower, Lily of the Valley, and Lilies.

This is my peony garden planted with my grandmother Julia’s peonies.  It was early spring and I regret that I did not take photos of the garden in full bloom.  Euonymus is in the foreground.

This Kwanzan Cherry was planted in memory of my father after his death. I think it was planted in 2008.  It was beautiful this year.

Grandmother Julia’s azaleas.  I estimate these were planted in the late 40’s to early 50’s.  They are simply spectacular.

Another of Julia’s azaleas.  This is my favorite variety.  Not sure of the name.

One of my favorite flowers, lilacs.  This plant was given to me by a close friend of 52 years! When it was in full bloom, I literally stood before it with my nose buried in those blossoms and breathed in their heavenly scent for 5 full minutes!  What a natural high!!!

Early summer pots. Not quite mature yet.

Recently found out that this shrub is called a Beauty Bush.  It blooms in April and is very pretty. I used it in arrangements for my daughter’s wedding last year.

An Easter arrangement with dogwood, lilac, azalea, and hyacinths.  Simple and pretty.

Ruth Buzzy’s front porch.