Went To a Garden Party

“I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends...” – Ricky Nelson

Garden Party:  a party of people assembled for social interaction out of doors.

Friend:  “I’ve never been to a garden party”.

Me:  “Me either, so I just decided to have one!”

I love gardens and I love entertaining, so a garden party was in order.   I began dreaming of a party straight from the pages of Martha Stewart‘s Living Magazine and started planning accordingly.  Unfortunately I don’t have Martha’s budget, so I had to “tweak” a few things, but it was lovely none-the-less. 

I give my mother much credit for my love of all things garden.  As I have written in the past, her gardens were the envy of the neighborhood and the passion she put into planting her gardens I found rooted in my heart years and years later.  Memories of her gardens haunt the corners and pathways of my own.

 She was there with me when I watered the garden first thing that morning, as I placed her dishware on my table, as my hands prepared the food and drinks, and when I broke the beautiful glass pitcher that was once hers and felt the loss, I imagined her wrapping her arms around me and whispering “it’s OK honey, I understand”, as I know she would have.  She was as much a part of that garden party as any one person who was there.

My mother is gone now, and when Mother’s Day comes to pass this Sunday, I will feel a real void in the day.  It has been almost two years…she died on a Saturday in August and not a day has gone by that I don’t miss her, long for her love, and wish I had done some things differently.  The good news is that I know, with all my heart, that her love lives on.  I am certain that I will see her again and it will be in a perfect place… at the perfect time… for all eternity.  And now when I feel her loss, God wraps His loving arms around me and whispers “it’s OK honey, I understand”.

So in the meantime, I strive to go about the business of my Father in Heaven, live life, love others, and have lots and lots of garden parties.

“So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 8:15