The Grass Is Greenest Where It Is Watered.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Grass Is Greenest Where It Is Watered.

A few months ago I read a book that had one specific passage containing a brilliant simple truth which has stuck fast in my mind;

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence.
No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it.
The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass where ever you may be. ~ Robert Fulghum (from "It Was On Fire When I lay Down On It")

With the mailleman away working in another country, and the rest of us here still, at times I feel as if I'm in limbo. The sense of impermanence was often bordering on the overwhelming - so there was only one thing to do and that was to start watering the "grass".

I know that the passage above is intended as a metaphor for making the most of what you have, focusing on nourishing and nurturing what surrounds you rather than wishing for more or different. However, as anyone who knows me will attest to, in my case the way to ease that sense of impermanence was, among other things, to create a garden of some sort and to attend to those things that the property agents/landlord choose not to see to.

Of course my first stop was putting some colour into the garden - which means REAL plants, not grasses or flax, species that have something by way of colour or scent to recommend them. Of course I got cracking with all of this rule breaking before I realised that Christchurch has water restrictions this year resulting from damage done to our systems during the earthquakes.

It seems that, despite water restrictions, not only the grass is thriving.......