Clover

Most of my life I have laid in this bed of white clover.

There aren't many people who can return to the same patch of clover under the same pecan tree that they laid under year after year since they were toddlers able to walk.

I remember the first time I understood that this patch of clover would be back each spring making a comfortable blanket of cool white to lay in on a hot summer day.

I'm fortunate that my relationship to the land around me runs through my veins deep.

I'm not sure if I haven't just become a part of the story this land has to tell we've been together for so long.

The dirt under my nails is the same dirt from under my nails when I was 5.

Year after year this clover grows, blooms, and the bees and butterflies, winds and rains, days and nights pass over it.

Ants march fearlessly through it.

Spiders wait for their next meal hidden in the blooms.

Year after year the clover returns a little different and yet the same.

Like the clover patch each year I change a little, grow a little more differently.

I spread a little more this way or that but at the center I am the same...

I have always been... 

rooted to the ground...

rooted to the earth around me. 

Rubrum

When I was in college these flowers among many other small flowers stole my heart.

They never give a great show.

They are humble little plants.

They hide are under the bigger more showy plants in the shade.

And yet, every year just like they did so many years ago when they finally burst with these little pink blooms they stop me and invite me to bend down each day and enjoy them for the very short time they bloom.

Epidmedium Rubrum

Down

I've been watching three male cardinals chase each other around for days. They come in chasing each other like they own the place. After a few rounds around the yard they all comply and seem to agree there is enough for all of them. They settle for dinner at the same feeder. It must be a tough decision for the  female who seems to wait for them to finish with their game before she settles in