I must admit that I was walking on air when I was once again living alone after a less that stellar marriage. I shared a whole bottle of wine with my good friend to mark the occasion. My friends noticed a change in my demeanor and commented on it. So, I am never lonely as I have something in my past with which to measure my being alone.
Which brings me to a gardening incident. I first noticed it several years ago. I saw the large green, shiny unmistakable leaves of a magnolia tree peeping up from between two huge logs. The logs had once been a mighty oak with twin trunks. This oak made the mistake of dropping too many acorns in my flower garden. After years of digging up the sprouted acorns I was less interested in shade than I might have been. Also one other unforgivable mistake this tree made was to allow it's roots to invade my space by finding their way into the drain line to my house.
With much regret I gave the order for this proud tree to be cut down. It fell toward the woods and the two trunks fell side by side. In the picture you can see the stump which is still firmly attached to mother earth.
How a seed from a magnolia tree found it's way into this small crevice between the trunks will remain a mystery. I had thought for some time it should be given more space in which to grow. But getting two huge trunks cut away was a daunting task, or so I thought.It took only about ten minutes or less for Jim to make short work of this job. The new blade on the chain saw seemed to relish buzzing through these trunks, in four different places. The two workers rolled the logs away and exposed the lower trunks of the magnolia, now free to expand and hopefully yield many beautiful , fragrant blossoms in years to come.
What brought me to this train of thinking today occurred after I read a story about a young girl who fell while dancing around her bedroom. She told about the blood gushing from her head and how frightened her parents were. This story took me back to the summer of 1970.
My husband and I took our children to a family reunion at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My daughter brought her friend Patty along and they shared a space on the floor of the screened porch there. It was a pleasant spot with the tall palmettos in full view. All was well until one night when I heard screaming coming from the porch. Rushing to see what on earth could have happened, I saw our guest holding her hand to her ear. Underneath her hand blood was coming from her ear. She had awakened in pain and none of us had any idea of what had happened.
We lost no time in getting Patty into the car and in great haste we made our way to the hospital across town. My husband slowed down for the red lights and then seeing no traffic (this was like 2:00 in the morning ), he sped on through. At the hospital she was taken in right away and minutes later the problem was solved. The doctor took an ear wig from inside her ear where it had been scratching and trying to get out of HIS bad situation ! She was still in pain from having the ear canal scratched but some medication made it bearable.
There was some speculation of how this insect found it's way into her ear. Perhaps it came in from the palmettos so close to the porch. These beetles are survivors. Their fossils have been found dating back 208 million years ago. However it happened, Patty was relieved to be free of it and I doubt the earwig had any time to enjoy it's freedom ! We were all relieved to be back home and have our charge save and sound after a harrowing experience. If there is any wisdom to be gleaned from this story, perhaps it is that nothing lasts forever. Memories come pretty close however.
I am your new follower - sis
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