Flower Chaplain

 The pots of tulips i planted in December were shooting green, so i brought some of them indoors to bud. 

My sweetie and i are making a jail break next week-- flying to Florida. So i delivered 3 pots of budding tulips last evening--one to a grieving widow, one to a cancer survivor, one to an always-helpful friend. Call me the Flower Chaplain.

A handful of my friends are chaplains, and i've wondered whether i could be one. But i don't have quite the right personality type. No matter. 

I can offer the hope of spring to those who are ill, the message of change to those who are grieving.

Ticks Off

My forester neighbor, Lynn, took a friend out to the woods with her. Lynn was wearing permethrin-treated gaiters. When they got back in the car, her friend had 4 ticks on her socks; Lynn had no ticks on her.

Okay. Now I'm serious about ticks. This morning i sprayed half of my gardening clothes with permethrin, an anti-tick spray. It's probably the same spray i used to spray all my clothes before i packed for India and again for southeast Asia.

While some people bewail the preponderance of ticks outdoors, i think of Lyme disease as our version of malaria. We have had the great good fortune to live in a safe area until just a few years ago. Now we join the rest of the world in having a nasty insect-borne disease.

We are of the nature to become ill--whether or not we want to. My friends with Lyme disease have on-going health issues. My heart goes out to them.

It's hard to have any sympathy for the ticks, but if they stay off me, they will have a much better chance of staying alive.

Bugs--on the Plants and in the Body

The houseplants have been cooped up in the house all winter, and, now, with the change of season, they're getting bugs. And i've caught a bug too.

I set the sickest houseplants on the front step to sun themselves, have a rainwater bath, and get some fresh air. Their anti-bio-tic is the bigger bugs that will dine on the little aphids and spider mites. I myself am taking hot baths and bundling up to stay warm in order to balance the cold that's affecting my respiration.

We are of the nature to become ill. Sickness is unavoidable.

I didn't ask to become ill. I don't want to be sick. Yet, here is the body, feeling poorly and fighting off some intruding bug. Sunning myself today, after a hot water bath, will ease the discomfort.