Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is
not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more
valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
The closest thing we have here to "lilies of the field" is Mexican primrose, one of the plants at the top of my "things I wish I hadn't planted" list. It reproduces by both seeds and runners, and if I'm not very aggressive about weeding it out, it could take over the planet....or at least our backyard piece of it. As you can see from the photo above, I haven't been sufficiently aggressive lately. Two weeks of vacation followed closely by forced inactivity due to lower back issues = the invasion of the Mexican primroses. But they are beautiful.My chiropractor has temporarily forbidden me from "lifting and bending over" which precludes a lot of garden activity. But walking is supposed to be good for me, so I can still enjoy my neglected garden by walking in it, which I do several times a day. I find that, because I can't do the things I think need to be done, I perhaps notice things I might not otherwise have seen. The peaches I had so carefully thinned are rather small, and I wonder why. Did I not thin them enough, or give them enough water and fertilizer? We experimented with several new plantings this year, and potatoes are going gangbusters in three different locations, but the raspberries I planted in a carefully-chosen sheltered location look terrible. There are tiny figs on the fig tree, and the Don Juan and Iceberg climbing roses may not be trellised properly, but they smell heavenly.
My Mexican primroses, and the "lilies of the field" passage remind me that life goes on just fine with or without our intervention. I'd be embarrassed if the RGFRP selection committee came to visit right now, because I don't think it would be what they are looking for. Yet it is beautiful in its own way, and I enjoy walking through it and noticing what has sprung up, all on their own, without any help from me. I realize that I'm a controller....I think that by thought and planning and making good choices, I can control life. But that's not true. I can increase the odds in a particular direction, but I am not in charge. And yet, there is still surprising beauty, and resilience. Life will find a way.
