Spring

Spring

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is Spring from our Sojourn With Luz Leigh Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

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Sojourn With Luz Leigh

Spring

Written by Luz Leigh - Wednesday 07 March 2007

Spring! I know the calendar says spring will officially begin on the 20th of March, two weeks from now, but for me today was the beginning of spring. This was the first day in many days I have felt physically able to work in my yard. My energy did not last as long as I had hoped, but I was thankful for the couple of hours I was outside.

There were small broken limbs from the two Chinese tallow trees (or is it Japanese?) to be picked up. Litter from the neighbors' yard that the wind had blown over to my yard needed to be removed before the yard maintenance men arrive in a few days. They would remove it, but sometimes they miss a piece of paper and it gets shredded into little bitty pieces. Then along the east side of the yard is where people passing in cars find it necessary to deposit their trash. Beer bottles, beer cans, soft drink cans, paper containers from fast food establishments are common. You know something? I've driven numerous times on that street and I have yet to see the sign that tells these thoughtless folks to deposit their trash in my yard. On second thought, they probably couldn't read it if there were a sign posted. Being trashy is just second nature to some people.

Do you suppose the Lord has the same feelings about trash littering His Earth? As He looks down from above, it must break His heart when he sees the land and the waterways being polluted each day by His children. Just in my lifetime I have seen how people seem to become more and more slobbish in the way we care for our earthly dwelling place.

But, back to my day in the yard. The sun is shining, and the temperature is a pleasant seventy degrees. A light breeze is blowing causing the three loads of laundry to flutter as they hang on the clothes lines. I have an electric dryer, but when it is possible I use the solar dryer provided by the Lord. Clothes smell fresh and I save electrical power. I am glad I do not live in a neighborhood like the one where my daughter lives. Outdoor clothes lines are not allowed. Too unsightly. I hope I do not offend my neighbors, but hey, except for the older couple who live behind me, I was here first. Until their health failed and they are no longer able to do so, that couple had a clothes line, too.

As I hang the clothes on the line, I have time to admire the beauty of nature around the neighborhood. There are the trees that are beginning to bud, except for the pecans. They will not set their buds until all danger of frost is past. Two years ago I planted a silver leaf maple on the east side of the house. It has lots of leaves beginning to shoot forth. At its highest point, the maple is now eight feet tall. There are patches of clover scattered around the yard. Makes me wish my horse were close by so I could stake her out and let her enjoy the clover. The bright green of the clover patches makes quite a contrast against the still brown grass. There in the dead looking grass are lots of wild onions; you know, the little white flowers that children love to pick and present to an adult with as much love as if the onions were a bouquet of roses.

Although I am not a horticulturalist, I know that sometimes plants need to be pruned. In Sunday school last week, we studied about how God is the gardener, the husbandman. For about forty-five minutes we dissected John 15:1b where it says, "and my Father is the husbandman. 2) Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he prugeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Verses three through eleven were carefully studied as well. In those verses we found the word "remain" (abide) some eleven times. Most of us had never noticed that before. But I digress.

At the rear of my house is a white running rose bush, and I do mean running. The bush is from a cutting taken from the rose bush at my mother-in-law's home. I'm not sure just how long the running rose has ambled in my back yard, but I know it was already flowering before my husband died and that was almost twelve years ago. We would jokingly argue about whose bush it was ... I would say it was mine because it was in MY flower bed and I was the one who kept it watered in the hot summer months. He would say, no it was HIS because he brought the cutting from HIS mother's yard. I sometimes take a bouquet to his grave, so he can enjoy his roses.

I stood looking at the vines which were protruding from the rose bush, knowing they needed to be pruned. Some were dead; these must be taken away completely for they no longer bear fruit (roses). There were others that are running out beyond the flower bed, far from the wall, and show no signs of putting forth new growth. And besides, they have large thorns on them that catch on the clothing or skin of anyone walking by. So with my trusty clippers I began the pruning and purging. After only a few minutes the job was complete and the bush did look better. As I was working there I could smell the fresh garlic plants that also grow in the flower bed. That smell always reminds me of home. The house in which I lived for thirty-five years. We didn't grow garlic, but our neighbors did and we could smell that aromatic plant across the back yard. The garlic plants I have came from some of those same plants I smelled as a child.

Near the front door is my japonica bush, covered with beautiful red blossoms. Multitudes of honey bees are buzzing around them. I steer clear as I pass by, having been the victim of a bee sting recently. This bush is amazing in the way it looks at different times of the year. From about mid-January until late March or maybe mid-April, depending on the weather, it is arrayed with the red blossoms. As the blossoms begin to fade away, bright shiny leaves appear. These leaves will remain until late fall. After the leaves drop to the ground, the bush looks like it is dead ... until the flowers appear in the dead of winter. And the cycle is complete. Sort of like our lives.

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