Like many others, I’ve been reflecting on the year that is ending and its considerable challenges, and wondering what the new year will bring.
As gardeners, the growing season we look back upon was an odd one that began late enough to curtail the full development of some plantings. But gardeners live in hope. Another year of growing favourite foods and flowers will soon begin.
Despite well-publicized difficulties common to our communities, those among us who have travelled and lived in less privileged places, and those who follow news from around the world, have to be at least minimally grateful to live where we do — in freedom, with clearly defined rights. And we have access to accurate news.
Which brings me to something I’ve wanted to say for a long time — about the newspaper, or online version of it, that you are reading now, and about the nature of our gardens and our democracy.
I love my morning newspaper, delivered for years by Dennis and now Brian, six mornings a week, early enough to accommodate my personal delight in the very early morning hours. I pick out the puzzle page first, and immerse myself with ridiculous glee in the word jumble, Sudoku and crossword while sipping my one, luxuriously robust, coffee of the day.
Why the delight? For years, circumstances dictated a workload that allowed no time to read the newspaper. I just clipped my columns for filing. Now, that early morning hour lingering over the puzzles and the rest of the paper is a perfect start to the day and a real treat.
Another, more profound reason to appreciate the newspaper: Events over the past half-decade or so have made me realize how vitally important a free press and independent journalism is to reasonable discourse and a functioning democracy. Note the countries — too many of them — where journalists are persecuted, jailed, and murdered.
I’ve learned to recognize political labelling of news media and critics as “enemies of the people” to be standard playbook rhetoric of current and aspiring dictators.
A free, independent press is the nurturing soil, needed moisture and fresh air to the garden of democracy. Without the nourishment of accurate information, that garden becomes host to the noxious weeds of groundless accusation, disrespect, lies and violence.
Democracies are never perfect. Neither is the press perfect. Gardens are rarely perfect. But, where we live, there is freedom to choose leaders, voice objections, and explore innovative pathways to improvements. Gardeners are familiar with these freedoms and privileges. Aren’t most of us constantly “tweaking” the contents and management of our gardens?
So … I appreciate my morning Times Colonist — as an essential service and source of factual information. And it provides an hour of playtime first thing in the morning.
Idle moments and rebooting. Often, on days when I’m buzzing about the garden or house, bent on checking items off a “to do” list, two lines of Leisure, a W. H. Davies poem, come to mind:
What is this life, if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
The lines come dancing through my mind at the busiest of times, to serve are a useful reminder to stop now and then, and be still. Step, even if only for moments, off the “gerbil wheel” of daily routine. Quiet the chattering mind.
In times of the year when the weather is warm, gardens, and spaces like balconies and decks with container gardens, are ideal settings for indulging in moments of repose.
In the centre of my large back garden, a congenial spot for quiet moments is in the dappled shade of the plum tree. In summer, a star jasmine vine behind the tree adds its sweet fragrance to time spent there in refreshing idleness.
My most used resting spot is in a little nook beside a small bed of roses and lavender. There is just room for a small chair and table. Across a path is the leafy canopy of kiwi vines. Birds abound. Nearby “snags” are favoured nesting sites.
May this holiday season present opportunities for indulging in moments of rest, and may the habit of putting routines on “Pause” now and then take hold and become a rejuvenating, balancing part of life in the new year. Think of it as a necessary “rebooting.”
