When Time Stands Still

There are moments in our lives when time stands still. Moments of such intensity that the picture in the mind cannot be erased.

We remember where we were when there are events of historical importance. I was watching television with JoAnn Turovsky in her parents' family room when the news came in that JFK was shot.

We remember moments that are out of the ordinary. I remember the first time I heard Mick Jagger sing "Satisfaction". It was on my first trip to the Grand Canyon, around Prescott. My very staunchly conservative father turned the radio up full blast, and we all sang along, even my father.

And I remember the day the original OJ verdict came in. I was wearing a red tunic T shirt, dividing the salmon daylily in this picture.I don't remember the species name, just that they were a dormant thatch. A couple bulbs of them had been my first catalog mail order purchase. Half a decade later they fatly filled this narrow border just below the vegetable path.

My garden fork and spade were pitched in to the earth when the acquittal came over the radio. I was stunned.

Fast forward to this month. On the same day the book on OJ and the murder, "If I Did It" was published, out came the news that OJ was under suspicion for armed robbery in Las Vegas. He repsonded to the charge "If I did it..."

I gaze at the same border now. It is apparent that while little changed about the hubris of the former athlete, this little piece of Eden had evolved and improved. The daylily now has good company in the pink carpet roses and two types of purple verbena. On the long stems of the verbena bonarensis, little birds perch and sway in the breeze.Bunches of lavender call in the bees.

The still lifes we look back on in our memories are history. But life moves on. Gardens live. Give companionship to what grows in your garden now. By adding diversity and abundance we create the opportunity for a future masterpiece.