Dr. Seuss's Teapot!

Dr. Seuss‘sTeapot!

I was thinking, the other day, about Leo Le Sieg, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, and his wonderful book, “Horton Hears A Who”.  I love his famous line, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”  It came into my head as I was in one of my ‘getting down on myself’ moods; Thinking of myself as being so small, not in a physical way (no need to drag that into the recipe), but as a writer, I heard the words: ‘A writer’s a writer, no matter how small’, and it really picked me up!  What has all this got to do with teapots?  Well I also found myself thinking about the nursery rhyme:

I’m a little teapot

Short and stout

Here is my handle

Here is my spout.

When I get all steamed up

Hear me shout

Just tip me over

And pour me out.

Sometimes a small cup of tea is just what the doctor ordered.  I like to think of myself as a little teapot, a small writer, who when I get steamed up, can pour out a healing potion of encouragement, sweetened with a humble teaspoon of wisdom (quality may vary depending on amount of sleep deprivation added to the leaves).  Each of us has our own cup of tea brewing, and the amount we pour out is not as important as the fact that we care enough to offer what is in our ‘teapot’ to offer – a fine cup of tea, no matter how small!  Thank you, Dr. Seuss, for offering me such an encouraging cup!

Love That Bluegrass!

Love That Bluegrass!

Springtime is seriously knocking on the door, even if today’s cool grey sky is trying to ignore it.  It won’t be much longer, and that got me thinking garden thoughts:  I look back with fondness on many of the planting and weeding days, back on old Padgeberry Farm – not with enough fondness that I would attempt growing the huge quantities of produce and flowers that we tended then. Still, there were some nice bright spots there!  One of them came in the form of tiny sparks of royal blue flowers – Blue eyed grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium (what a long name, for such a short plant!). They held up their hopeful faces, one by one – I liked to think they were smiling at me.  While the weeds in the garden threatened to overwhelm us, my two lovely niece helpers laughed, as I took great delight in talking to, and ‘weeding-in’ the blue grass plants that I discovered there - carefully moving them over, just a tad, out of the way of what I was actually attempting to grow.  Eventually, I had to give up on this well-intentioned exercise, as the sea of blue stretched a little further than manageable – Yes! That worked for me!!   My husband would roll his eyes (once more!) and give up trying to convince me that I should stop wasting my time; that they were just another weed.  I’d say, “Not so – they are just flowers growing in the wrong place(s).  Hats off to those particular weeds!”  The memory still brings a smile to my face; and so do those actual flowers whenever I find them anywhere.   Like the flowers in Dolly Parton’s, “Wildflowers Don’t Care Where They Grow”, a bluegrass gem of a different sort, they certainly don’t ask for much - they just offer their beauty wherever their seeds land.  A lesson to myself:  Whenever I am feeling overcome with the troubling weeds in life that threaten to overwhelm me, I will lift up my face, move those troubles off to the side, just a tad, and transplant smiles all around.  Think bluegrass!