splendor in the grass

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice, for your soul is alive.
—Eleanora Duse

The threshold into my backyard seems impossibly steep. After four weeks of reclining on the couch, leg elevated, I am starting to climb the walls.

I need to dig my feet in the earth again, injury be damned. I need to spend time in my garden. So I practice crabwalking with my crutches, imagine in my mind's eye how it will feel to venture into the great outdoors. "With God as my witness," I tell my Facebook friends, "I'm gonna wiggle my toes in the grass before this weekend's over!"

And guess what?

I did it!

In feeling the sun on my face, a weight is lifted from my shoulders. I am not my present circumstances; I am fully present in this moment.

My zoom lens is my ally. It brings into my field of vision the tiniest of ants. Can you see it, too, nestled into that faded but still beautiful rose petal?

My Hawaiian Blue eyes are winking…a random sprinkling of Felicia Daisies make my heart sing.

"Someone needs to refill the birdbath," this goldfinch seems to say. I'll relay her message to my husband. =:)

I'm not yet able to shift my weight from one foot to the other. And besides, the ground isn't level. But my knee scooter helps me venture further, helps keep me from toppling over.  And look! Here's a patch of lisianthus, standing tall.

Jane Goodall once said, " I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That's what I believe, and the presence of that spiritual power is very, very strong in the forest." I agree with her, and I believe it's found equally in stands of palm trees and chapparel-covered hillsides.

I find joy in this tangle of Wendy's Wish, Indigo Spires and Black and Blue Salvia. And something else…