Just a Heart

   Here I am in those years deemed to be "the elderly" and I am still learning new things every day.  I guess that old adage "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." is a bunch of hogwash.  In fact, it is good to keep learning.  You know...you have to keep that brain active!  At least, that is what my kids tell me.  So, I research just about everything I come across.  Some of this, I retain.  Some I deem boring so it gets stored in that dusty part of the brain where things go to hide for eternity.

  Today, I found a leaf!  Exciting?  Nope but interesting enough that it brought questions.  The research did not even involve the type of leaf or what caused the odd shaped holes carved into it.  I knew the answers to both.  It is a grape leaf and the holes were the result of pine needles being dropped onto the vine.  Those pierced the soft part of the leaf leaving gaping holes.  Nope.  I did not need any help figuring that.  My research came as a result of me thinking the leaf resembled a heart.  (It did not look like an anatomical heart but rather the cute hearts we all use to decorate things.) Where in the world did that shape come from?  Who thought that a few squiggles should be called a heart?  I had to know.

  Come to find out, the heart shape is all because of a now extinct plant, the Silphium.  This plant was something that was widely used back in ancient Rome.  (This plant is not to be confused with any modern day plant even if it has a similar name. This silphium has gone the wayside.)  Anyway, those ancient Romans decided that the plant was good for a myriad of things but all were centered around "love".  The plant was deemed as an aphrodisiac, a contraceptive and an abortifacient. Hmmm...perhaps that is why it is extinct now.  Overharvesting can indeed cause problems. 

  Still, that does not explain the shape of the cute little emoji heart nor the Valentine heart.  Well...there is more.  Since the plant was tied to all this "love", they needed something to represent the plant and there it was.  What we know as the heart shape comes from the fruit or seed.  The case was roughly that shape.  The mericarp (fruit) was soon representative of the plant itself.  Those ancient Romans started carving the shape of their wondrous plant onto everything.  It became the decoration of the time.  It wasn't long before the mericarp was on the coins used at market.  Geez!  So...there you have it.  What we know as a cutesy emblem came from long ago and depicts a part of a plant.  It has nothing to do with the human heart.

  So, folks...keep learning.  Even if it is something that is just a curiosity and not that useful, learning keeps the wheels of thought going.  That is not a bad thing.

  

Take It Or Leave It...

  Even if you do not believe that signs can be sent as a personal message, you have to admit that there are some pretty incredible sightings.  Orbs in photographs, a white feather floating down from the sky when no bird is in sight and cardinals visiting on the windowsill are all explained as "signs" from beyond.  If you do not believe..fine..go on about your business and brush these things off as nothing.  To my way of thinking, if it brings comfort, then by all means...believe!  Why not?  Life can be pretty crazy and, occasionally, we all need to have something that tells us we are not alone. 

  A few days back, my brain was cluttered with a thousand things.  The mind was troubled with events surrounding the Bayou.  The turmoil would go into a slight lull only to return with a vengeance.  It is not like me to lie awake at night pondering what might be as I have always had full trust that my life was being handled by a stronger power than I possess.  Granddaddy had once told me that each day of my life had already been planned and I should simply strive to do the best with what was given.  It had always worked like a charm.  That said, I sure have been having a lot of sleepless night lately as my brain just cannot seem to let go of the anxiety.  (A few weeks ago, a conversation with a snake helped tremendously but was not lasting!  Yes, I talk to the critters of the Bayou.)  

  After one such sleepless night, I headed to my peaceful place.  The waters of the Bayou and Bay always seem to have a positive effect on my troubled mind.  To the east, heavy clouds hung close to the horizon promising a stormy day ahead.  I was all for that as a good storm clears the mind.  After twenty minutes or so of meditation (good for the mind) and stretches (good for the body), I turned to head back up the hillside.  It was then that I saw a reassuring sign that all was going to work out for the best.  The thick clouds had lurched up as if two hands were forming a heart.  A clearing in the middle held the only bit of brightness in the entire sky.  A sign?

  I have always been told that the heart is the center of physical and spiritual being.  It is where compassion and understanding begin and where true wisdom originates.  (Not to be confused with knowledge, here.)  Anyone can be fed information and retain it but true wisdom is knowing how to apply that information in the everyday life.  In short, you can be smart but not wise.  My spiritual wisdom seemed to be shaken to its core and, to retain my peace, I have to restore it.  Spiritual wisdom is not something that can be taken for granted.  It has to be maintained.  I am fully coming to believe this is all true more than I ever expected.    

  Whether the heart-shaped cloud could be considered a sign or not remains to be seen.  Since that morning, the nights have been more restful, however.  Peace...it is good for the body, mind and spirit.

Its A Leaf...It Is Love

  Sometimes, you come across something that strikes a chord with you or tugs at the heartstrings for no other reason than it is there.   It is almost as if the item was specifically placed for you to find.  My hikes about the Bayou often present me with such treasures...treasures that most would pass over without a second thought but for some reason stand out as special to me.  This morning's "treasure" was nothing more than a leaf but, for some odd reason, it "spoke" to me.  (Not actually but you get the idea.)  

  Son and I were out getting more firewood early this morning.  He was running the chainsaw and I had hauling duty.  Even though toting the wood up the hill, around the side of the greenhouse and to the wood bin is tiring, I would much rather do this than the other part.  I am getting too old to be wielding the chainsaw!  It was on one of those walks with an armload of wood that I nigh on stepped onto the leaf.  Although it was noticed, the leaf did not stand out as anything miraculous until about the fourth trip past it.  Suddenly, I saw the leaf in a whole new light...literally.  The sun cast a single beam of light through the leaves of the old oak tree and brightened the leaf.  By the time I retrieved the camera from the house, the sun had moved on its merry way but the new found interest in the leaf remained.  It was gorgeous...a perfect red heart!  The leaf was photographed and toted back into the Little Bayou House.  I knew exactly what I was to do with the leaf!

  For years now, I have often given a "heart" to my sweet niece when she comes to visit.  It may be a heart-shaped stone, a leaf or flower petal but never anything bought.  Sweet Eva was coming today so I feel the leaf was placed especially for me to present to her. Yes, it seems silly but let me explain. This young lady has held a piece of my heart ever since she was a child.  She would often come stay when she was nothing more than toddler.  Now that she is grown, visits to the Bayou are special to me.  She is the type who would rather have a simple, from-the-heart gift than the most expensive present that money can buy and fully appreciates even the tiniest of gestures.  I knew when I saw the heart-shaped leaf that it was meant for Eva.  Not that a leaf, itself, was worth anything but, still, it was priceless.  The hearts that have been given to this sweet girl show that, even though the items themselves may fall the wayside (leaves whither, you know), the love this old aunt has will hold strong through whatever may come.

  Gracious as she is, Eva accepted my tiny offering with a profuse amount of gratitude.  She understands.  She knows that even though the leaf was simply plucked from the ground, that it represented the fullness of my love.  Oddly to say, she and I are kindred spirits.  We both understand.  

The Sign Says...

  It is amazing how the human brain works...or sometimes overworks....or sometimes does not do a lick of working at all.  Mine, lately, has been bouncing back and forth between being in overdrive to having stalled at the corner waiting for the light to change.  During those frenetic times, it seems that I am trying to build mountains out of molehills.  Bad part about this..I am succeeding.  Those mountains in my brain appear to be insurmountable.  I become increasingly aggravated by things that are never going to be under my control and wish to ditch it all and hide under a rock until the problem passes.  In some ways, that may not be such a bad idea.  Still, I can't.  Regardless of the task at hand, my nature is to not quit.  So, I push myself to face things head on.  

  That is not to say that I do not need reassurance that things are going to be fine and dandy.  So, like so many others, I start looking for signs for that bit of encouragement to carry on.  This afternoon as I walked the old dog about the hillside, my brain was in a turmoil.  Today was one of those days where for every two steps forward, I took ten backward.  The whole day made me tired...just tired.  Once down near the marsh, Mr. PJ stopped dead in his tracks.  He stood sniffing the north wind as if something was about to happen.  Then...a grape leaf fell from the sky.  It dropped as softly as a downy feather just a few feet in front of him.  Weird.  We were far from the grapevines.  In fact,we were under an oak tree.  It then dawned on me that perhaps this was my so-called "sign".  The leaf was bright yellow and in a the shape of a perfect heart.  

  If you ever delve into symbolism of colors, you will find that yellow means happiness, energy and positivity.  Hmmm...yep, that would be a pretty good sign to accept.  Instead of dwelling on the confusion battling it out inside my head, I need to focus that energy into something positive.  This should be something that is realized without the "sign" even though one never hurts to reinforce the idea.  If it takes a grape leaf to set things right in the mind, so be it.  

All In Her Head

  Years ago, I was very ill.  After countless visits to several doctors, one had the nerve to tell me that "It is all in your head"....meaning that I was imagining things.  I am glad that I did not listen to him since it turns out that it was my heart...not my imagination.  Once I got the right doctors, things went well and I made a fast recovery but it could have been a very different story.  The new doctor said had I listened to the other fellow, I would have died within a month. 

  Still to this day, the quote "It is all in your head." irks me to no end.  The thought that having things all in your head is a bad thing, (the way the doctor had meant it), is all wrong.  To my way of thinking, it should be the other way around.  Having it all in your head should refer to the cognizant thought processes without which our daily business could not be faced.   It should refer to ingenuity, intelligence. wisdom and, yes, imagination.

  Just this morning as I was marveling at a spiderweb being illuminated by the morning sun, a thought started worming its way into the brain.  If things were not "all in our heads", how does the spider know how to build such a perfect snare?  If you have ever noticed, not many mother spiders go out of their way to teach their offspring a thing or two about web-making, catching food or escaping predators.  This all has to be learned on their own.   Most of us tend to think of spiderwebs as something we would rather not walk into and become entangled.  The thought of a spider crawling up our back is not overly desirable.  But that spiderweb is a remarkable thing and the spider used all of whats "in its head" to spin the fabulous creation.  How does the spider know to make a web in circles?  How do the spiders in the marsh know the changes in tides?  Why do some spiders make platform webs, others dangling webs and others cone shaped?  Because it is all in their heads.  They have thinking brains that help them to figure out the best method of catching their prey.  Spiders also can adapt their methods when put in a different situation.  Take an orb spider that makes a perfect hanging web.  If nothing is flying into the web, they have the ingenuity to drop a few "fishing lines" or dangling webs to the ground to catch crawling bugs.  Whereas they usually wait for a hapless moth to fly into the web and then just leisurely walk over to munch it, with the dangling webs, they literally reel in their catch!  A rather ingenious method!

  So, the next time someone makes the snide remark that something is "all in your head", thank them!  Tell them "Yes!  I have that and a whole lot of other brilliant things floating around in there!"  Just do not listen to them and think that is the end of it....or it may be.  In the case of my illness, I used what was in my head to find someone who could and would help me.  So, I am glad it was "all in my head"!

Its a HEART!

  Since I have been a tad under the weather for the past few days, I asked Son if he would make sure the plants in the greenhouse had water.  I dozed a bit while he was outside (which is quite unusual for me) only to be awakened by the slamming of the back screen door.  Wow!  That was different!  Normally, Son is so very quiet that it is hard to tell he comes into a room and I never hear him when he enters the other end of the house!  I wonder what caused that?  I was just about to call out to him when he entered the living room.

"They do not stop." he said as he showed me a handful of bell peppers. Well, that explained the slamming of the door but not where he found all of these peppers.  "I thought we picked the only one last week when Mary Ruth was here." I pondered.  "Me, too." was the only answer I received.  Apparently the pepper plants in the green house have either been doing really well or we missed seeing all of these peppers when they were all still dark green. It took the one bright red one to call his attention to the others.  Ha!  Fresh Bell Peppers in February!

  While we were marveling at the delightful vegetables, he pointed out that the red one had a nice shaped heart on it.  Aww, both of us had the same thought.  We wish we would have seen the heart one when Mary Ruth was here!  The little (not quite three year old) loved picking vegetables and I think she would have been tickled to see the heart shaped one!  Yep, that little girl definitely has our hearts....it is quite evident especially when something reminds us of her every single day!.....even Bell Peppers!

Nothing to Love

  I see a lot of strange things around here.  I am usually up before most other folks and the world seems all fresh and new but, every now and again, I find thing that sure don't thrill me.  Although I admit that I find all things about nature fascinating, that does not mean that I adore everything I come across in the garden, on the hillside or in the marshes.  A few things almost disgust me!  Take today, for instance, I stumbled across a most interesting formation of little white cups and thought "Here is a thing of beauty!"  It was beautiful.....at least to the eye.  Once I delved into the matter a bit more, my admiration soon turned to repulsion.

  My morning started with the usual picking of Boysenberries.  It is peaceful in the garden at daybreak and this morning was made even more enjoyable by the coolness that had set in after the severe thunderstorm last evening.  The same rains that cooled and cleaned the world, also, turned leaves that were normally cupped downward. One leaf in particular caught my attention. Now that the leave was upended, I could see the beautiful arrangement of tiny white cups.  Why!  The sparkling cups were in a heart arrangement!  I thought this even added to the appeal of the oddity!  I should have known better than to think shining white cups on the bottom of a leaf could ever mean anything other than trouble.

  I did know.  I knew exactly what these things were.  These pretty little egg-shaped cups were exactly that...eggs.  These were EMPTY eggs! Oh, no.  This meant trouble.  You see, even though the critter tried to disguise the fact that she was laying eggs by putting them in a heart shape, this "love nest" was not something I loved.  These were Shield Beetle eggs!  The same Shield Beetle that goes by the better known name of STINKBUG!  Yep, these were the eggs from one of those nasty, foul-smelling, juice-sucking critters that ruin tomatoes, berries, peaches and any number of other crops by sticking that proboscis of theirs in and sucking the thing dry!  They cause more blighted tomatoes than any other critter and I had missed the opportunity to squish dozens of the critters.  The female had done a great job hiding the eggs under the leaf until the storms flipped it over.  Still, it was too late for me to do anything about the possibility of mass destruction of my garden so I sat and admired the beauty from which all of those little beasts hatched!  Love nest....hmmph!  I have no love for stinkbugs!

Home is where the heart is!

  Today was moving day.  It is official now.  My daughter and her husband are here on the Coast.  They have bought a house not too far from the Bayou and this was the day to move their furniture from our place to theirs.  It was an all day job using a cargo van, pickup truck and three SUVs each making several trips.  She and I stayed behind at the house to arrange furniture and unpack boxes as the fellows drove back and forth loading and unloading.  Tonight will be their first night spent in their new house.

  This morning as we were loading vehicles, Elizabeth pointed out that my cactus had several heart-shaped lobes.  I think that cactus was trying to tell us something and Elizabeth summed it up in one sentence.  "Home is where the heart is, Mom!"....and she is right.  My heart (Elizabeth) is now home..back on the Coast.  

  The day was hard but fun.  She and I did a lot of chattering and laughing all the while unpacking.  The house is now in some semblance of order and we are exhausted but it was so worth the effort.  Seeing these young folks starting out in their new home does the heart good. Happy lives, kids, happy lives!  Mom and Dad love you!