Musings on Babies

Our famiy has good news! Another child is coming to us. My niece has announced she is going to be a mommy for the first time. The parents and grandparents-to-be are very excited, and there's lots of preparation going on already. Our extended family is already huge and intensely close. Even though we are a diverse bunch, we would drop everything and be there for each other in a moment of need.

I was thinking recently how dependent an unborn baby is on its mother. Safe inside the womb, the baby receives whatever comes through the umbilical cord, good or bad. For many months the child is fed and nourished, and grows. Parent and child are as one, but the child is a completely unique individual.

As I was spending time with some of my new conifer babies, I realized how similar these infant plants are to human babies. A plant propagator starts with the mother plant, called the understock. It is healthy with a good root system. A small branch from another plant is grafted into the stem of the healthy plant, and if the surgery is successful, the small branch will begin to take its sustenance from the parent. While still attached to the understock, it will develop into a plant with characteristics completely different from the parent it is depending on for its very life.

Abies koreana 'Kohout's Icebreaker'

Pinus parviflora 'Tanima no yuki'

These are two of my babies, still attached to the parent. When they get a little older, the understock will be cut off at the graft and the new plant will develop into an adult.

Life is a miracle, whatever its species!

Not-So-Mighty Chiefs

I haven't been here in awhile. Life has its strange turns, and you never know when you're going to get surprised by one. My dear husband, soul-mate and best friend, went in for a simple surgical procedure on his carotid artery three weeks ago and came out with a dying kidney. Those pesky blood clots! One little blockage in a renal artery and a major body organ is strangled. I think when that happens in a heart, it's called a heart attack. Would this be a kidney attack? Whatever... we have moved into a new season of life where every day is uncertain and every moment is cherished.

I was sitting on my porch yesterday contemplating this sudden change in our lives when my gaze fell on my Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph'. He is having a health crisis of his own. I guess I would have to say he's also fighting for his life due to circumstances beyond his control. First he lost every needle in a particularly wet winter. After I transplanted him, he seemed to go into shock, a downward spiral from which he may not recover, or will be forever disfigured.

Two chiefs fighting for their life, one in my garden and one in my life. I don't like this sense of helplessness. This is discord. This is a huge fermata in the music, time suspended...

This is my reminder that we are all one heartbeat away from stepping into eternity. I'm expecting both my chiefs to live, but for either of them this could be the finale of their life song.

The Word says "It is by Him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28) It says "He holds all things together by the Word of His power." (Hebrews 1:3) It says "He has numbered our days before there was even one of them." (Proverbs 17:19-21)

It's up to God Almighty, all-wise, all-loving, Whose plans for each of us are perfect. His grace and strength are sufficient for every mountain we face. His blessed hope is the real music, after all!