Bob and I started this piece over a year ago when it became obvious I was having trouble closing shop aka bringing closure to my tiny raised beds for Winter. Bob suggested I might want to look at the issues I have with endings. I'm stubborn so I didn't admit it at the time, but I knew he was on to something. I had (and still have) a bathroom ceiling half-way painted, not to mention a file drawer of unfinished stories and a bag of recipes that I clipped in 2008 with the intentions of organizing them.
Eventually the tomato, bean and squash vines were uprooted, but the ceiling's not yet pa
inted nor the recipes filed.
I then took Bob out a couple of times. Literally he joined us at Bosco's in the Village for a friend's birthday then around New Year's he spent some time in the kitchen at Cookeville's Maddux Station. (He's the tiny speck on the stove's corner.)
In Spring he briefly helped with this year's garden though what I do isn't what my grandparents or most folks would call gardening.
Being outside in Spring jump started a story again between us. The energy of Spring is known for that, starting new things not just seeds. Actually Bob wanted his own facebook page a companion to my "Imagine the Shift". Bob insisted his page "Imagine the Shi_" include vignettes as to how the shi_ in life helps us grow and evolve. I was having enough trouble with my own page, embarrassed with accidentally becoming a follower of myself, wondering if friends would 'like' me.
I resisted Bob's request but he continued, to talk to me that is. I began to call him the Dolly (as in Dali) Bob since we began a piece on the importance of happiness, the simple happiness that arrives when we're present and engaged with the journey.
As our story unfolded we read where the Dali Lama was in the states personally speaking on happiness. I became alarmed upon hearing the Dali Lama say things that Bob had been telling me. Not wanting to be accused of plagiarizing the Dali Lama, the story got stuck and so did Bob. He spent too much of the summer on the kitchen window sill and I spent too much of mine allowing stories to pile up. (Bob would say there are no mistakes and that he was exactly where he was suppose to be....keeping an eye on me.)
Last month, Bob helped me as I closed shop and later as I sat among the mums, the mums he had seen me plant last Fall. We began to reflect on the things that make us happy or bring deep satisfaction.
For Bob and me, like the holidays, the seasons and gardening are magical. Where else can this - nine potatoes, tubers, as they're called.....
become blossoms....
that become a basket of potatoes - red, white and blue - despite my negligence this summer of them too.
And the blue potatoes held potato snowflakes inside.
This is the magic available in our everyday life! For Bob and me it brings joy and delight as well as a feeling of deep peace. Can you feel it, the inner satisfaction of being present with the simple things in life?In this the time of Winter, the outer gardening is over and we turn our attention to gardening our internal lives. May you find and feel the magic that awaits you and over winter when you're missing the magic stop back by to be mesmerized by the journey of the potatoes and read more from The Good News Muse and the Dolly Bob.
-Dawn! the Good News Muse, 11 Dec. 2010
*Read the story of Bob's birth - "I'm Gonna Have to Face It I'm Addicted to Mums."
Or click "What about Bob?" (Nov. 5, 2009) and "Back to the Garden" (Nov. 7, 2009) for two other Dolly Bob inspired stories.
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