On this Vernal Equinox, first day of spring, Megan came to here to help me plant flowers. She has a passion for gardening, and the meditation garden is her favorite place at my house. We'd been planning to do some gardening together, and as things worked out (planned more by the fae than by us) this special day was her first time to be here in a while.

Her mother dressed her very sensibly in jeans and sweater, but as soon as her mom had gone to work, Megan decided she wanted to wear her dancing dress, so she stripped and re-dressed. I don't know if there was any discussion between Megan and her father about this, but she arrived at my door with him just as you see her above, ready to begin gardening.

I complimented her on her dress and she twirled for me, and started gathering up gardening tools and flowers from the porch to take down to the meditation garden near the blessing cairn.

The process goes something like: I stick the digger in the ground, she lifts the dirt out, and eventually we have a hole. It's usually a slightly wonky hole of erratic shape. Then Megan takes the plant from the pot and puts it in the hole and we both tamp the earth back in around it. When it is firmly settled, we put our hands beside it and bless the plant—root and stem, leaf and blossom, now and the years to come.

Here Megan is "mellin' the flowers" we just planted. Planting is a very leisurely process, with intervals for smelling things, stroking leaves and petals, watching bugs, avoiding owie plants (brambles and thistles), and picking up leaves and stones for closer inspection. It is also important to stop and dance just for joy once in a while. I enjoy gardening a lot more if I do it at a Megan-led pace.

At her own home, Megan and her mother have just started a garden—carrots, peas, and cantalope seeds all went in the ground in the last few days. Here at my place, Megan and I are doing mostly flowers and herbs in the garden—and a few strawberry plants in pots to live by my kitchen door this summer.

We were planting primroses today, which was another of those accidentally auspicious things. The word-roots for "primrose" translate literally as "first flower" and these were the first to go into the meditation garden this spring. The yellow ones I planted a couple of years ago were already in bloom and beautifully scented in the sunlight.

I can't believe I'm so slow! I only just this moment got it that of course we had to dance—especially Megan. Wherever the Maiden dances, things grow and thrive. Megan knew that. That's why she wore her dancing dress. She may only have just turned three, but she is more in tune with the important things than I am.

Going at our own gentle pace, eight primroses made it into the ground before I got too cold. It was a bright but nippy day, and Megan in her glamorous dancing dress needed to borrow my unglamorous but already "gramma-warm" jacket, which covered her to her toes and dragged on the ground. The strawberries will wait until she comes back next week.

Just as a little sideline of interest—jade comes in big chunks here. The stone Megan is sitting on is the "maiden's stone" in the garden, and it is jade—not gem quality, of course, but jade all the same. One of these days I'm going to choose a piece and try my hand at a little stone carving. I quite fancy having a pair of faces, green man and green woman, life-size in jade. Since I've never carved anything harder than wood, I might not carry through on such a project, but I'd like to give it a go. Meanwhile, I'm keeping my eye out for a couple of suitable stones...

September 2003 The Raising of a Stone
September 2003 The Gnome Ghome

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