From my journal, 8 August 2008:
“What I know… Every day is fragile. Every day counts. There is no such thing as a day that doesn’t matter. We are hope. What we do with possibility is our legacy.”
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“I sit in the corner of the Kruidtuin [‘Herb Garden’] sheltered from passing showers. A wooden table and five wooden chairs, brick walls behind me, a brick-laid floor beneath.”
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“The garden visitors are as many as the showers today; their behaviors are alike–fleeting presences with places to go, sights to absorb.”
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“I asked a gardener if he spoke English, but no. I want to ask about the fruit. What do they do with it? And could I volunteer here? It’s not a nature reserve but I feel the plant and animal life here, even in the few foul (a rooster and four hens) and bee hives. Spiders. Insects of water. Goldfish. Algae (grown by the gardeners in the aquarium).”
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“There are a pair of willows that greet me, and a pair of blue spruces–the latter [first] greeted me the year I lived here, reminded me of home.”
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“The bees are busy with their work. The rain doesn’t keep them inside all day. They enjoy the many nectars of three seasons, and sleep for the winter.”
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License updated 26 September 2008.
What I Know by Melissa Dey Hasbrook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Here is a comment from Paul Martin. Apparently Word Press is quite some trouble for many web users. My apologies!! Thanks, Paul, for emailing me.
“I know the feeling, and wish that humanity as a whole were living in that kind of harmony with nature.
“And you’re absolutely right: every day is precious beyond imagining. I could have no idea on June 15, 1994 that the next day I’d be stricken at the age of 37 by an illness no one in my family had ever had or heard of that would soon leave me severely disabled.
“You really never know. Same would go for people who get in accidents or develop other health problems. Ordinary life is extraordinary.
“Paul – originalfaith.com”