Striving

Once again I find myself sitting in my sun room overlooking the backyard. This is the place I am drawn to lately...my meditation room. Each morning I try to steal some time to sit, pray and prepare for the day.

The windows overlook an area of my backyard that was the focus of my attention this past spring. Trees provided daily shade and a very tranquil feel. Many an hour and dollar were spent planning and planting  a nice shade garden that included multiple varieties of hostas, impatiens, and ferns. As the perfect backdrop, I hung three coconut straw baskets that trailed vines and flowers.

About a month ago I came home from work after a very long, grueling shift to find that a storm had taken out a large branch of the center tree. My shade garden was now filled with sun for most of the day.
For weeks  I have struggled for ideas to salvage my original plans. As a quick aesthetic fix I planted some sun loving plants in my coconut baskets but every thing wilted and died.....or so I thought.

Two weeks ago I noticed a squirrel in a basket gathering pieces of the coconut hay. He jumped from basket to basket trampling each and every plant. My first reaction was to put cactus and succulents in their place to deter the pest but gradually I've come to notice many a bird gathering straw from the same baskets...wrens, cardinals, robins and finches.

This morning I sat down and began to offer up my usual prayer of forgiveness.....frustrated with myself and my inability to be what I long and strive to be.....

Looking up at the frayed baskets outside the window, an idea occurred to me...instead of spending so much time and effort trying to deter the squirrels and birds---I will just allow them free access to the straw and place feeders in the center of the baskets. (Maybe as a compromise, I could cut holes in the bottom of the baskets and plant some trailing vine ;).