Grateful For My Strength

The leaves are all off the trees now, the daylight disappears earlier, and the temperatures are dropping. Yes, it is starting to look and feel like winter will be coming before too long. And since we have already had the first hard frost, now is the time to plant the spring flowering bulbs -- the daffodils, tulips, and crocus.

I have a special connection with flowering bulbs. I remember having a garden in our backyard when I was a child, and planting bulbs that would flower in the spring -- crocus, daffodils and tulips. Then when I had a chance as an adult to have a garden, I started by planting crocus, daffodils, and tulips. In fact, I still have some crocus which bloom every spring that I planted over 25 years ago!

As a gift from my mother, 2 weeks ago I received a box in the mail containing a large number of spring flowering bulbs, half for me and half for her. Last fall, I was unable to garden very much, so my ability to kneel down and be on all fours touching the Earth now is a real gift. And this was the weekend for me to garden. The weather was warm, in the 50's and 60's, not too rainy, and the new garden bed by the street out front had already been prepared. So yesterday I planted 25 daffodils, 10 tulips, 50 yellow crocus, and 20 anenome. I stopped gardening when the heavy rain began, so today all I had to do to finish was to plant 25 more daffodils and 50 purple & white crocus.

In the middle of the day I gathered all my gardening tools -- the shovel and trowel, gloves, pillow in a plastic bag to kneel on, and of course, the bulbs. I was outlining the area in the garden bed where I would plant the daffodils so I could begin to dig, and as I went for the shovel I tripped over a rock in the border of the garden. Upon losing my balance, I stepped on the plastic container holding my trowel -- luckily I avoided stepping in the box of crocus bulbs -- but I was still off balance. My left foot landed on a different rock in the border of the garden and that rock went out from under me. Trying to catch my balance, my right foot went into the garden bed followed by my left foot, and then my right heel caught on another rock and I fell to the ground landing first on my bottom, my momentum carrying me backwards. I didn't do a backwards summer salt, but I ended up lying flat on my back and hitting my head hard on the leaf-covered street. I remember feeling my entire spine go down on the ground, much less gently than I move these days, and realizing that I was not in control of where I was going and that I did not know the ultimate outcome. I was very present to observing and participating in what was happening to me.

And the HUGE MIRACLE is that I am not hurt. If any of the neighbors had seen me fall they might have thought I was doing a wild dance. I did hit the back of my head rather hard on the street, so I called Gene on my cell phone to tell her I was on the ground, and then I went into the house to take some homeopathic Arnica Montana for the fall. I was a bit shaken.

And then I went back outside, got on my hands and knees, and planted the remaining bulbs.

When I was finished and came back inside the house to rest, I thought more about my fall, and I realized that I am very lucky. I could have landed on my spine and fractured some vertebrae, or landed on my wrist, or broken a bone, or bruised myself badly. The fact that I emerged unscathed from my sudden connection to the Earth indicates to me several important things. First, my bones are much stronger now than they were 18 months ago. And second, I have some pretty talented angels and guides with me, who made sure that I didn't get hurt today.

So, all in all, it has been a very exciting day. I am very grateful for the strength of my bones, for my balance such as it is, and for the diligent attention of my guides -- and next time I will be more careful when I garden!