We Must Trim the Roses.The old and the young. The new and the old.
My youngest is not getting being clean
When my oldest painted the wall with her poop it was a disaster.
By my third child I just waited for it. There was no drama and she never did it. There are things we have no control over. So I have taught both my boys how to bend knees and roll when jumping off high places. My oldest boy liked roofs. My youngest has yet to teach me a new trick but I suspect it will be jumping off the car. He did the kitchen table just yesterday, but he is a smart one and put pillows below ---- although that is a good way to twist an ankle, oh well.
Raising Children is like raising an 9 foot tall rose hybrid.
Just about anyone can buy a rose bush and plant it. My sister once told me, "roses are great, you just plant them and they bloom", her roses suck. I ponder for hours what to trim and cut from my roses. I have a bloom right now that stands over ten feet tall. It makes my eyes tingle with its beauty. It is a cross pollinated hybrid.
My eldest stand about 5'8" and she is a hard core professional in DC. My elder son stands like me just a smidge over 6' and just recorded and published an great album. My younger daughter stands around 5'6' and is currently on her way to outer Mongolia to learn about saving babies.
My youngest is still learning 3 languages and jumping off of tables and build mud puddles, and chasing butterflies.
They did not get this way by accident. I did not just pop a seed, throw down manure and let them bloom. I fed and nurtured them, and when they shot off wrong I made damn sure their roots would anchor then to earth and good. I did not ask them to go to worship, I let them know the beauty and so they wanted to go. I did not push them on grades, I studied hard enough to help them love the subjects.
My fish and my roses and my nephew get the same out of me. Deadwood gets trimmed. Nourishment is daily in the form of attention and providing safety and guidance. It requires getting up early and going to bed late. It requires standing in the sun and cheering on. It requires getting others to support. It requires a true sacrifice of love.
At this distance the smell is intoxicationg
Most growers do not go for height, I do and folks like it to look up at a rose.
Children need cross pollination
I do not care who, but kids need two or more to raise them. One is just weird. I get single parents that isolate. And I danged sure get their children -- screwed up.
Billybuc just wrote a great hub about getting more than we can handle, because we got friends. People who think the can do on their own are sick. I do not care if they want to destroy their lives by isolation, but I hate to see a shriveled rose. Children and roses deserve input from the village of man.
Encouragement is nourishment which leads to growth, with leads to blooming and being all that we can be. Support is the pollinating of the spirit. Diversity is our well spring.
Keep both?
Do you love both old and new?
Folks think this song is about a place called America. Wrong. It is about a spirit called America, no spirit no place.
Just a year ago I raised a strange garden of Dandelions, Mallow and Lemon Grass. Weeds.
Mallow is just awesome for you, but a weed. Dandelions are more often pulled up than nurtured yet they are a huge nutrient for humans. Lemon grass is a non-native weed that has iron abounding and as the name would suggest vitamin c.
This year abundant carrots, sunflowers and radishes will grace our yard. And my youngest will learn how to cultivate and nourish.
Between my 3 older children they have 6 degrees and 1 advanced degree. They are not handpicked flowers. They are years and years of devotion and sacrifice and love.Between them they have travelled to over 100 countries. They have hiked the Himalayas, Andes, Alps, Rockies and Appalachians. Each has served doggedly for charity and causes like our planet and equality.
Now those damned roses and those kids did not get there without some pruning. They did not get there without fertilizer, they did not get there without love and a village.
Now I am older, with only one at home. I turn my attention to other youths and my roses and my fish and my homeless. They do not need me. I need them.
"If a man has a cup filled with love, but does not drink of it and spill it, there is not room for more love" ed 2013
Very strange if you ask me.
I do not normally conclude what I wrote but today I do for a great poet who has taught me that all of our craziness is just fine. to Epi.
Let me play the fool
Let me break the rule
Make an example out of me
Use chains to deny me free
Open up flood gates and drown me
Open up fire and consume me
But touch not one hair upon the head
Of a child who will walk in my stead
Be creative
This article was written by Eric Dierker. I reserve all rights to this article and desire no duplication without attribution. On the other hand feel free to share the content just let folks know where it came from. Copying it and claiming it as your own would be stupid and subject you to my legal harassment of you. Besides if someone asked you what it meant you would not know so yes it is copyright protected as original work by me. Just leave a comment to ask to use it elsewhere and please share it.
To read more by this fascinating author visit www.thedierkerblog.com, Eric Dierker on Facebook and Pinterest and my sweet blog resipsaloquitor on google blogs