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Rain Garden Today

The spring flowers are gone, the peonies are fading,the roses in bloom and the lilies with other summer flowers getting ready to bloom. So goes the rain garden in part of our front lawn, changing from early spring to late falls but always full of color and beauty. The changing flowers make for nice and fresh daily bouquet on the kitchen table.

Although we add or subject plants from the rain garden the best things about all the flowers in it are that they are perennials, coming back year after year. With the sun and water, from the house roof going through the rain barrel picking up some casting tea running throughout the garden in saturation hose, the rain garden needs a little care. Wood chips keep the weeds at bay so only the invasive woodland sun flowers need pruning.

As long as the constant of the rain garden, from spring to fall, is beauty the changing rain garden avoids labeling. It is not a rose, tulip, sunflower or mum garden.

In life human beings working for change, particular for social justice and peace, have a difficult time avoiding labeling. As some of my friends and I know humans like to label people pushing for change to they can avoid the message of these people by putting them in a box. By pointing out the voting record of my liberal congressperson on more war spending I have been labeled as someone insulting her. By pointing out how the local universities teaches war and reflexive killing, killing without conscience I have been labeled anti ROTC. When I was fighting discrimination of a mental health clinic in a neighborhood I was called ‘crazy’. When recently I was fighting against discriminating young adults from playing basketball at a nearby country park I was accused of calling persons ‘racists’.

What I can learn from the rain garden is to continue to speak my conscience and what I feel and not to worry about labels and what people say or how they ignore the message and label the messenger or worst yet, ignore the message and messenger. If we consistently seek the truth and speak our opinion of truth we can say, as Dr. Seuss said: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Or simply said: Be like the changing rain garden.

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