One of my favorite blooms is the beautiful, large Magnolia. A couple of these majestic trees are directly across the road from my home. Behind my house, many are scattered throughout the woods; peppering the dense forest with occasional splashes of creamy white.
One of the biggest Magnolias on the place stands before Mama’s house; planted there, years ago, by her hands. She used to laugh, while remembering how her extravagant, plant filled yard… with its many trees, flower beds and Azaleas….. was once, a flat and barren bed of red clay.
In her later years, the maintenance of such a heavily populated floral yard became difficult to manage by herself. One morning, I was raking huge, brown leaves from underneath that Magnolia tree. As she was sitting in one of her patio chairs, sipping on a Diet Coke, she informed me about her true feelings regarding that tree.
“Myrna Schilling and I decorated your wedding with its foliage and blooms… made a beautiful wedding. And once, while in the garden club, I won a Best In Show ribbon on one of its flowers. But other than that this tree has been nothing but a royal pain in the butt.”
Well, I reckon that summed it up. She never dreamed, when she planted that little sprig… that she’d spend the rest of her life; raking mountains of dead leaves up, finding more than a few snakes underneath, and hoping it didn’t fall on the house. Hindsight’s 20/20, as they say.
It certainly wasn’t the only ‘uh-oh’ that she planted, but indeed, it was the biggest. Reflecting on my own life, I suppose I’ve planted a few ‘uh-oh’s’, myself. Haven’t we all?
At least hers was of a horticultural nature. But that’s life. We plant things, watch them grow, and hopefully, we grow with them. But there will always be leaves, to rake up. Is what we want today… going to be what we want tomorrow? Or is it going to be one gigantic pain in the butt? As a general rule, we usually don’t know the answer to that question, until much, much later…after that tree is too big and too close to the house…to simply cut down.
So, we do what we do. We enjoy and admire those beautiful blooms. In the midst of imperfections, somewhere, there lies some form of perfection.
The Magnolia bloom is, indeed, one of my favorites to behold. It’s large and beautiful. Such is life.
