Planting Lilacs - June 25% Discount for New Supporting Subscriptions

Things I loved this week

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Now on to the post….

Planting Lilac Bushes - The Orientation Not Just A Destination.

I planted a lilac bush beside my home when I moved to this place four years ago. It is situated amidst an ever-expanding garden of perennials and what has become a bevy of bird feeders. I can see its glorious clusters of purple flowers through my bedroom window as I awaken, catching a hint of its unmistakable scent. Beyond the lilac bush, the deep green woods are filled with wildflowers bearing colorful local names like Trillium, Trout Lily, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Solomon’s Seal, and Jacob’s Ladder. I have a great love for all things that flower, but if I were asked to single out one bloom as my favorite, it would have to be the purple lilac. Many times I have buried my nose in clumps of them. I’ve lingered beside them on city streets, looking both ways before pinching a couple to take home or carry with me. I’ve tucked them behind an ear, in a shirt pocket or through a buttonhole. I have arranged them in vases or glasses of water, making humble living spaces smell extravagant.

With very few exceptions, I’ve planted lilacs in every place I’ve ever lived. I planted one next to the garage of the rented duplex where my daughter was born. I planted two in the front yard of the brick fixer-upper where my husband and I laid down the hardwood floors board-by-board. I planted one at a house by a lake and another next to a small apartment across from a park. I planted one beside a cracked sidewalk, another next to a vegetable garden, and one small twig of a thing alongside the water meter of an inexpensive walkup with linoleum floors and good light for painting. Because lilacs take several years to bloom, I have seen very few of those plants come to flower. And yet I can imagine them all faithfully blooming each spring, I can see a woman at an open kitchen window taking a deep breath, a teenager look up from their smartphone asking “what is that” or a man slowing his pace as he catches the scent, each person thinking “Ahhhh, lilacs, lilacs. Someone planted lilacs—for me.”

I know that peace, love, truth and justice, in their final and completed form will most likely not happen in my life time even though we may find our way a few steps closer toward that good and fine goal. I often think of something author and peace builder, John Paul Lederach, once said to me. He said, “My work for a better more peaceful world must be the orientation of my life, not just the destination.” I have held that idea close to my heart in these troubled times. The point is not that every dream and every action comes immediately to fruition. The point is to keep planting lilacs and to live according to my deepest and most beautiful values. The point is to live in alignment to my True Self and have the courage to live what Parker J. Palmer calls “the undivided life.” This is not to say that we won’t see the flowers that come from we plant, because some every shining now and then —we do. And so every spring time I now pick a big bouquet of lilacs from the four lilac bushes I’ve planted over the years. I bring into my home and the scent of them permeates the house for days. They are a reminder to me to keep planting and if I am true, the way forward will be true.

A portion of this post was excerpted from the essay “The Gift of Giving & Receiving” that appeared in A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays

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Question

What does the phrase “my work for a better more peaceful world must be the orientation of my life, not just the destination” mean for you? What does it mean to have love and love-made-visible the orientation of a life well lived?

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Music Always Music

I wrote this song, “Leaves Don’t Drop They Just Let Go” from my album The Geography of Light with Mike Mains at The Gruinwald Guild.

Things I loved this week

Because I love Libraries and Dedicated Librarians With A Sense of Humor

The Milwaukee Public Library Instagram This Instagram page is so fun. Librarians at this public library actually won a Peabody Award for their fun, informative, inclusive hell-ya-we-love-books postings and videos. Check it out.

Articles to Make You Smile

21 Laws of Nature as Interpreted by My Children "If you can’t make a new ant, don’t kill an old one." By Brian Doyle Orion Magazine.

I love the work of Brian Doyle. Here is an article he wrote for Orion Magazine sure to make you smile.

Books

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Ok, on the Meyers-Briggs tests I swan dive into introvert. This book talks about how there are true gifts that introverts, ambiverts and extroverts contribute to the world. It’s a wonderful affirmation of the gifts introverts bring that have often been diminished in our culture.

Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green

I pretty much read everything John Green writes. This book is a hard look at a devastating virus, but through the lens of how economics, greed, class, race and country or origin enter into access to healing therapies. It’s about tuberculosis, but it’s also about what must we do to build a better, fairer, more compassionate world.

Substack

If You Can’t Get Out of It, Get Into It. - From Living The Questions by Parker J. Palmer

I love this story and how Parker “unpacks” the David Whyte’s beautiful poem “Start Close In”

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Comments I loved this Week

“Our daughter when five asked us not to use favorite “because if someone says that red is their favorite color then purple feels bad.” Jack Ridl

“When my now 34 yr old daughter was small, and we'd walk in the woods, we had to stop at each Jack in the Pulpit plant to see if Jack was home. And when he was, we had to say, "Hi, Jack!" Walks took a long time in those days, and I also had the opportunity to see things through the eyes of my daughter.” Debra Bures

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One Inch Photos