Yesterday I got 7 more yards of mulch. Really.

And of course today it’s in the 90’s, which makes spreading mulch not so fun. I did some of the spreading and spent some of the day digging up rogue plants that had moved into areas they didn’t belong, along with their corresponding weed friends. The deer have already eaten plants I put in pots out in the garden, my pink lilies that I haven’t seen bloom in years, the phlox and now are starting in on the sedum which had never been touched in previous years. Every year is a new learning experience! I DO have one iris blossoming:

Which made me happy today. Might as well enjoy it today, because tomorrow it could be deer fodder.

As I was weeding the perennial bed I thought about other people and their relationship problems that seem so overwhelming. My little problem of not having a job doesn’t seem to be nearly as earth shattering as what several other people are going through. A twenty year marriage ending, a relationship that never had a chance to begin. It’s like the world has gone a little bonkers all around me.

I’m contemplating this while weeding tall grass out of my Russian Sage plants. The smell of the sage lingers on my fingers and instantly I felt myself back in my grandmother’s yard, out on the farm, over 30 years ago. And for just an instant the smells of the garden remind me of good days long ago, remind me of times when life seemed simpler. But I bet if I had asked grandma back then I’d have found that she too thought things were a little bonkers all around her! She was 96 when she died in 1982, and she had seen some pretty amazing and most likely crazy things in her lifetime.

So the big concept here is that it’s all relevant. Every day has simple components, pulling weeds, smelling memories. Every day has craziness, hearing sad stories about people and their relationship problems . But every day also has hope; that tomorrow there will be more simple things and fewer crazy things, and maybe even more opportunities to remember happy times from long ago.