Today’s find: Perennial

They’re gonna make it, I’m now beginning to think.

That wasn’t a sure thing a few months back. Shortly after planting an array of flowering perennials, we noticed that our precious tender vegetation had become a favored menu item. The flora we’d purchased at a pretty penny must have looked (to the local rabbit) like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And he tended to be one hungry bunny back in May, leaving little more than nubs and stems in his wake.

Soon enough, this outcome had me recalling a favorite quote from Anne Lamott: I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of a cat dish.

Fast-forward a few months, however, and our garden’s prospects appear much brighter—due in no small part to the chicken-wire fortresses I’ve erected around each plant.

Granted, it’s not a particularly attractive look. But the makeshift battlements have done their job, giving achillea and coreopsis and their salvia neighbors a chance to flourish…all, without my having to call in air support.

These developments, this flourishing, set me to thinking about the improbable boon of chicken-wire. It ain’t much to look at—dull gray and dusty, a bit cantankerous to mold into a functional shape. But it does its job well, keeping those bunny bicuspids at bay. With a chicken-wire infrastructure in place, floral beauty at last gets a fair shot at bursting forth.

So too the blessings of a long marriage, I’m inclined to believe on this remarkable day—45 years since my beloved Gerri and I said “I do.” You have to look closely to appreciate the beauty of a long marriage. The pomp and circumstance, the joy and celebration of the wedding day have long faded from memory. Indeed, many of the witnesses to our vows that day are no longer among the living.

In place of that ephemeral joy, we now celebrate something a bit more like chicken-wire: We notice (and thank the Lord for) some simple humble patterns of protection that have emerged in our lives—a lattice of love, a fabric of forgiveness that wraps our days…and keeps life’s predators and pests at bay…day after day after day.

Saint Paul knew something about the reinforcing strength such “chicken-wire habits” can offer. That’s why, I think, he encourages us in today’s second reading to “be kind to another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.”

Living Bread helps, too. Jesus gave us his very self at Mass on our wedding day 45 years ago…and he continues to feed us today. We said “Amen” then, and we say it now again. We believe that His flesh helps the two of us bring life to the world.

After 45 years, Sweetie, what do you think? Is it safe to say we’re gonna make it?

Love you lots! And look: I brought you flowers!

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS