Okay. I admit I like to play god. That’s why I have a purple clematis flowering in the plum tree. God neglected to give the tree the flowers I like. I had to do it myself. I’m quite happy with the results. They remind me that often I have the power to clean up his design flaws. And if you don’t appreciate my impersonating a deity, I can offer a more neutral take away:
Let your delights tangle together. There is no reason to accept any reality that falls short of what your imagination can do. The sacred new creation awaits your hand and heart.
The clematis episode is not just a jumping off point for vanity or profanity, an excuse to unleash my ego on the flora. (Though I have to mention that on other days of creation there emerged yellow lilies from the midnight ninebark bush and shasta daisies on the variegated iris.)
Sometimes the creations are co-created. The snail that chewed a hole in the leaf allowed a flower to emerge through the opening.
And sometimes the wayward ones plant themselves devilishly in the wrong places. So yes, demons are at work in my palette as well. Why else would a garish pink appear beside a true red? Depends on whether you believe in the design-wrecking devil or the serendipity artist.
I go outside to capture my creations with my phone. I totter to the bottom of the garden with my cane in one hand and my phone in my teeth. When I confront the full on beauty of my handiwork, the marriage of clematis and plum, so does the wind. Apparently I can choose to grow velvety vines in trees, but I can’t prevent the wind from flapping the blossoms and fruit away from the phone-camera. Okay, so I am an imperfect deity. After the wind has buffeted my plums, flowers, wobbly leg and brain, I put the phone back in my teeth and concede my humanity.
I don’t control the weather, my wobbles, the seed spreading birds or my phone. Together they render a blurry picture of my arboreal masterpiece. I go inside and humbly plead for assistance. I will tell the story of creation but the picture will come from my partner, Jeff. The wind has wonderful messages. It says: “Play god as much as you like. Create again and again; just don’t expect your creations to sit still and pose. When I come to bless them, they will dance.”
Creation is collaboration with the unexpected or it is misery.
