a bit of earth

  so early in January of this year Shawn and i finally agreed to start a garden, but due to sickness the only things we got in the ground were the 3 bare root roses Ivy hand picked so she could have her very own flower garden.... sadly because i have the exact opposite of a green thumb, only one of the bushes took. (frown)


  but all the sorrows for the death of the other 2 bushes were swallowed in complete joy when Ivy saw the leaves and buds begin to grow on the one that i didn't manage to kill. every day she went out there and watered them and loved on them. and as each little rose bud opened she was filled to the brim with all the pride of a new mother! i cant tell you how many times a day she asked me to go out and admire her new "baby roses"  and smell them and feel how soft they were and listen to her go on and on about how wonderful all this was!

and i was gloriously happy for her! that is until she came into the house with her eyes still misty and the tell tale tear lines that ran down her dusty little cheeks,that she had been crying "my rose is dying mom!" with the most heart wrenching tone and timber in her voice,  i knew in a second this was truly a heart break for her.

a little back story... ivy is a sweet, sweet girl, but she has some issues that makes it hard for her to make and maintain lasting friendships.  so i know all too well the euphoria  she feels when she meets new friends, and the depths of despair that wraps around her when "said friends" then reject her.

 my heart sank as i took her into my arms.  ( mental face palm by the way)  for not having the foresight to  explain that flowers grow they bloom and then they die!...   and that her "babies" weren't going to  stay around forever!

so we had the conversation all over again, but this time with "flowers instead of friends" i told her that even tho those "baby roses" were going away, that through out the year and in gods time, more flowers would come to make her happy! and its ok to be sad at the loss, but to remember that she had made good memories with these ones, and that for sure there will be more good memories to come. sigh...( hopefully we don't kill the bush this summer!)

so this whole day i have had the words to the song "a bit of earth" from  Secret Garden the musical stuck in my head, its a beautifully sad song, that just seems to fit this experience...

A bit of earth,
She wants a little bit of earth.
She'll plant some seeds.
The seeds will grow,
The flowers bloom,
But is their bounty
What she needs?

How can she chance
To love a little bit of earth?
Does she not know?
The earth is old,
And doesn't care if
One small girl wants things to grow.

She needs a friend.
She needs a father,
Brother, sister,
Mother's arms.
She needs to laugh.
She needs to dance,
And learn to work
Her girlish charm.

She needs a home, friend
The only thing she really needs 
I cannot give.
Instead she asks
A bit of earth
To make it live!

Why can't she ask for a treasure?
Something that money can buy,
That won't die!
When I'd give her the world,
She asks, instead
For some earth.

A bit of earth,
She wants a little bit of earth,
She'll plant some seeds.
The seeds will grow,
The flowers bloom,
Their beauty just the thing she needs.
She'll grow to love the tender roses,
Lilies fair, the iris tall.
And then in fall, her bit of earth
Will freeze and kill them all.

A bit of earth.