Patience Learned

"When one flower blooms spring awakens everywhere" 

John O'Donohue

With the snow gone and temperatures reaching into the 70s my mind wanders to the beauty of spring possibilities.  A couple of decades ago when I was absolutely certain I knew everything there was to know, about whatever I thought important, it only took a couple of weeks of spring like temperatures to send me off to the nursery to get a head start on planting.  Now when the weather starts my head spinning with thoughts of spring blossoms  I think of sweet Mrs. Cherry.

Mrs. Cherry entered my life shortly after we moved to Nashville.  She was in her mid seventies and I in my early thirties.  She was ready to retire from teaching, and little did I know I was just about to embark on the adventure of teaching.  I had been substituting a couple of years when I was ask if I would be willing to teach full time.  There was a child, in Mrs. Cherry's class, needing  special attention.  The family agreed to pay my full salary if I would stay in the classroom and work one-on-one with him.  I agreed.  And so began my friendship with this delightful woman.  

By the beginning of April, along with our friendship, the dogwoods, bradford pears, and cherry trees lining Belle Meade Boulevard were beginning to bloom.  I had a bad case of spring fever.  One morning, standing around on the playground, Mrs. Cherry and I started talking about flowers and gardening. I told her I thought I would stop at the nursery and pick up a few flats of impatiens to plant over the weekend.  Her immediate response was, "Oh no, we haven't had dogwood winter".  She went on to explain we would have a cold snap while the dogwoods were in bloom, followed by forsythia and blackberry winter.  She strongly suggested I wait until Mother's Day to plant.  Well, I didn't listen, and yes, the very last freeze was the week before Mother's Day.  That year I learned patience in the classroom and in the garden.

I no longer live in Nashville and planting time here arrives earlier than Mother's Day.  With the warm weather seeming to promise an early spring, instead of rushing out to the nursery, I will instead think of  Mrs. Cherry, remember lessons taught, and find other ways to nurse my bad case of spring fever.

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