penandpatience

Note: My fiction story, “The Siberian Queen,” is now available in Zimbell Publishing House, LLC’s “Puppy Love: 2015” anthology. The book features short stories about our canine friends and how they have enriched our lives. Proceeds from the sale go to Michigan No-Kill Shelters to help find permanent homes for dogs in need.  The book is available at Amazon ($15.00 retail) as well as Kindle and other E-readers ($5.00 retail). The book is also available from the publisher by contacting sales@zimbellhousepublishing.com A must read for dog lovers!

 WRITERS WORDS: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
– Anais Nin

APRIL 2015 MONTHLY MUSING

 PASSIONATE GARDENS

I’m excited! Very, very soon my small gardens will again give birth.

It’s late March and an early return to the Northeast for this patient gardener. I look out the patio door hot coffee in hand at a landscape still shrouded with snow; patches of lightly-tinged green grass dot the grounds here and there.  It won’t be long now I think to myself.

I step outside with my steaming mug; take a deep breath of cold, fresh-smelling air, my eyes scanning the yard for any sign of life. So far, there’s only the sound of the wind chimes hung under the deck tinkling in the damp breeze. I can’t help it. If you’re a gardener like me, you realize that gardens are more than green plants a-growing—garden blooms bring forth passionate, romantic and even erotic emotions in both caretakers and recipients.

Just like a fertile female brings forth a lovely child, our fertile earth pushes out live buds in a rebirth of plant glory every spring. A loving mother gratefully monitors the growth of her newborn while a gardener observes each new bud poking its head through the soil and follows each development into beautiful blooms, edible veggies, and aromatic herbs.

I’m at a time in my life when I can take time to “smell the roses.”  The scent of a rose, the pungent odor of a spring daffodil, and the heady fragrance of a Lily of the Valley—blooming flowers have historically through today inspired many males in the romantic courtships of countless females. Bare hands tilling the soil, sowing seeds and placing small, fledgling shoots in the cool spring ground is a passionate ritual I, like many gardeners, find a pleasurable experience. And if you think about it, there’s rampant sex going on in every garden, field and farm. Nature’s bees are busy buzzing around pollinating blooms, the birds are darting in and out of low-growing shrubs and bushes, males fluffing their bright feathers hoping to catch the eye of the just the right female—I imagine some of them are not too fussy!

And for readers and writers, recently, I was fortunate to receive a complimentary copy of the book, “Fifty Shades of Green,” from Sandra Knauf, Publisher and Editor of Greenwoman Magazine (www.greenwomanpublishing.com). The book available through Amazon, and other sites, is filled with tantalizing, passionate and erotic stories in and about gardens from various authors.

Although my pen will not be replaced by a garden trowel in upcoming months, I will be outdoors passionately digging, weeding, and planting, stopping every now and then to admire and take a deep, romantic sniff of the mixed scents in my garden.

Join me! Take time to “smell your roses” this year!     And don’t forget…

LIGHT IT UP BLUE – World Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd. Join me in shining a (blue) light for autism. For more information, go to: http://www.autismspeaks.org.