Slowly gardenkeeping for the fall

Tags

autumn, Gardening, pictures, postaday2013, writing

I took these pictures to show how my garden looks when it is spent of all of its energy and flowers. I have slowly, over the past weeks, been gardenkeeping, cutting back and clearing up the little individual garden beds to prepare for the coming change of seasons. I figure may as well do some now, rather than let it all die back willy nilly. I write this post with a heavy heart, I so hate seeing my gardens die back, I know that it is all in part of the circle of life, but I lament the loss of color and the dance between the butterflies and the dragonflies.

I did forget about the burst of color that the Mandeville is still producing, alas pretty soon when I have to bring it in, along with the bougainvillea and the hibiscus, those beautiful blossoms will be no longer and I will be lucky if the Mandeville hangs onto its leaves. But as I said before, it is a circle of life and without the dark days of winter, would I experience the rebirth of spring as strongly?

Regrets, I’ve had a few….

What’s your biggest regret? How would your life have been different if you’d made another decision?

I know that this prompt is a repeat but I will answer it, not for myself, but for my baby girl. We just recently spoke on the phone about regrets and the like and I asked her not to do what I did back in high school, give up on dreams of being in a science related profession because the science class was too hard, not to one's liking or just a plain chore.

I wanted her to understand that the regret that I feel is not how my life turned out but that I gave up on myself and I didn't persevere past the difficult class and take on another because I caved into the belief that I wasn't up to the challenge. I might have been a very good doctor in spite of having difficulty with chemistry or organic chemistry, but we will never know. Why? I gave up and threw in the towel at the beginning, without even giving physics a chance. Chemistry gave me a rough go for the first time and I convinced myself that I didn't have a head for science, all this decision making at the ripe old age of 16. I had needed better guidance.

I also tried to stress to my baby girl that there doesn't exist a doctor or a marine biologist who did cartwheels on the way to chemistry class or organic chemistry class, but they did hang in there and keep an eye on the prize; a career in medicine or working with marine life.

I am hoping that some of what I said took root somewhere in her brain because I would hate it if 10 or 15 years down the road, she looks back and says "what if I had hung in there, what would my life be?" Because honestly, there is no time like when you are young, marriage free and child free to do all of the studies for your prospective career, especially if you have had some type of career concerning animal care on your mind since you were a young girl.

I hope that she knows that despite the advice and the suggestions, we support her and always have her interests and her happiness on our minds and in our hearts.