Gerushia's New World: ducks

For those of you who have been following my blog from the beginning...way back to my old Garden Painter Art days, you know that I have had a series of challenges in my life. In 2003 my dad passed away here at my home, on hospice. Soon after, my mom fell ill with a rare disease. Her sickness was a long and drawn out "process" which ended in her passing away at a Board and Care in June of 2009. During the time that my mom was sick, my family fell into terribe financial troubles due to her medical costs. I fell into a terrible depression that lasted several years. I felt dead. I had no desire or hope and I found myself, basically, waiting around to die. I stopped creating, I stopped laughing and I stopped gardening. I found that without hope, you can die inside.

Over the course of the last few years, I've had alot of time to think and put things in perspective. Even now, things are sometimes difficult, we're still struggling to get our finances in some sort of order. Some days are better than others...BUT, I do have better days now.

Little blossoms of hope ~

You see, where my beautiful garden once lived ~

and gave a colorful treat to the eye ~

and a pitter-patter to my heart ~

Is now home to an abandoned ~

tangled ~

webby mess ~

It's coming up on three years now since I turned my back on my garden. Now, I'm finding that my garden refuses to turn her back on me. She is much more loyal to me than I have been to her.

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking outside my window. In all the abandoned, tangled and webby chaos, I saw just the tiniest hint of pink. On closer inspection, I found that there were several fresh beginnings of Pink Salvia coming up. What??? My Salvia died out in the Autumn of 2007, along with everything else. Now, three years later, these little pops of pink hope are making their way out of long dormant seeds.