Iris, out of focus

It is so insightful that when you get too close to something with an iPhone it is out of focus and the background is easier to see. It's a subtle reminder to step back and look at the bigger picture without becoming overly focused on the details. Real life is like that idea and I can never be reminded of it too often. Not that I have serious memory loss, I just have conventional reality and my home culture saying "look at this!" every few minute there is something so distracting and interesting grab our attention and like many of us I am easily distracted. I worked in the garden, as a kind soul, a master gardener, had just this morning gifted me with lilies that need to be planted 5 minutes ago. This deep purple iris was looking over my shoulder as I removed an overgrowth of water sucking phlox and bluebells which had taken over an area I had planted with something shy, and non-invasive like delphinium. They have all but disappeared and think it would just take a moment of my time I grabbed the shovel and began removing the phlox. Two hours later it was deep dusk and I could barely see as I planted the lilies in the rich, newly vacated soil. Now my anterior deltoids are screaming and I still haven't watered the new foster plants. I can barely see the purple Japanese iris and I am exhausted after a full day of work and errands. I promise myself that I will get up early to water the transplants,  I give the pots of tomatoes waiting to be thinned and forget to harvest the lettuce as I head for people food and soap, in the reverse order. It is the last day of May 2012 and it is with wistful sadness that I say good by watching the fairy lights glow like fireflies. My kids act like I'm cra-cra when I talk about the plants talking to me. And of course they don't speak English/American! But they definitely will communicate with anyone willing to listen. My daughter, who is too smart to know any better says I am simply projecting, personifying and that it's not true at all: the bog doesn't care if I visit or not. She is something of a pragmatist in spite of the fact she describes herself as a pagan, a shamanist, and pays homage to "the ancestors" without ever having an awareness of who are those ancestors, when push comes to shove? they are not separate from us that they need to be somehow "re-membered"... they live in our flesh. Top of the list for tomorrow: water new plants.....