Talking to Plants: Count Your Bees and Your Blessings

Daylily 'Mary Todd' given to me by my dear friend Sheila.

Today is the national bee count survey day. So all of you into bees, get out and get counting and go to this link to find out more about The Great Sunflower Project. They offer great real world tips to help our bees. They also have the Bee-o-meter, a fun tool to see how many bees were counting in a 15-minute period in your zip code during the 2010 bee count.

While we are busy thinking about bees and that they help produce 1/3 of the food grown here in the United States, we should also think about the blessings in our lives. Here in central Wisconsin, there is a lot we can be very down about. For example: the unreasonable, unreal weather, the new governor and his capricious actions, the economy and the rhetoric in Washington preventing honest compromise and inability to see the global picture of what happens worldwide if we don't just drop the crap and increase the debt ceiling, all in addition to the individual things that just don't seem to go the way we want.

So here's my list of my blessings:

My parents are still living, as well as all my siblings and their spouses (and exes) and children. And, although my parents can drive me nuts, I would miss the council of my father accumulated in his 78 years and the foibles of my mother.

I have a nephew who is almost 8 suffering from Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy. At 8, he is smart, good-looking, and engaging, and doomed. This is a terrible disease and its long-shadow is already casting its pall on my sister's life. Thirty percent of DMD are caused by spontaneous mutations. We believe this to be the case for Sam. There hasn't been any other incidence among any of our relation that we can find. Needless to say, after learning of Sam's diagnosis, I gave both (my son, and my brother) the big strong men in my matrilinear line (and only ones still living) big hugs just for being. Boys are precious. Hug yours.

Second blessing: My Ex and father of my son. He's a great guy, just not a great guy for me. Although he lives in Chicago, and my son and I live in the wilds of Wisconsin, he has been there for us and provided for his son. And he's been a good friend as well.

Third: Boxers are great dogs. Faithful Companion is incredibly bright. My son and I figure she has a 50-60 word vocabulary and a sense of humor. This morning, I cleaned out the fridge and found a halfway to dried-out chunk of rice krispy treat wrapped in cellophane which I promptly deposited in her bowl (sans cellophane). After mowing down the treat she comes out to the dining room and rolls onto her back, curling her feet in and letting her ample floppy lips fall over her eyes and holds the pose until you notice, in a pose my son and I refer to as "Please Read the Directions Carefully Before Assembling Your Boxer". It never fails to get me to laugh. Faithful Companion knows this. She then prances over and actually gives me a big hug, knowing her job is done.

BTW, never teach your boxer to do the Conga.

So I am leaving you with a final blessing today of some of the things blooming in my garden. And especially today, let's pay it forward as bees do and as my friend to the north always says in her blogposts, "Be a joy-giver."

An unknown bulb given to me by the daughter of a friend who died last November. The daughter found them while cleaning out the basement of my friend's house.