Day 53: Change is At the Gate

Moving the Madeira Crested Violet (Argyranthemum frutescens), last fall from a pot to a spot in front of the fountain seems to have suited this “Paris daisy." It has doubled in side and given us a mound of brilliant color among the quieter spring greens. I’m sorry to see the flowers looking a little worse for wear right now, though they may yet have a chance to adapt to the summer’s more limited water supply and give us a second bloom. This is a transition period in my garden - when the early flowers are nearly done and the most brilliant summer blooms have yet to come. Right now, we’re waiting for the hydrangea and the Bougainvillea to take over center stage.

This seems, too, to be a transition period with everything Corona virus. I’m not talking about the crazies who want to rush back to what they think will be life as usual, or about the virus itself that will get stronger as we let down our guard. I’m talking about the scientists who tell us the disease and disruption are going to last much longer than we expected, and the smarter and more measured among us (be they business people, social scientists, economists, planners, artists, etc.) who have begun to imagine and plan for a life that will never be the same. What have we learned? Where can we adjust expectations and ways of behaving? What surprisingly interesting solutions have cropped up in every corner of our human enterprise? What cannot come back, no matter how much we will miss it? These are the interesting and necessary questions - the hope we have of facing the new realities and thriving still.

I feel the shift, too, among those closer to me. Everyone I know seems to have come to the realization this week that this interruption to our (wonderful) way of life is not a novel blip that will be over anytime soon. There is a new normal on its way. We’re not ready yet to completely embrace that notion and get on with it, and we’ve been given this strange little bubble of time to get used to the idea. We’re still safe in our garden, waiting for the next installment to reveal itself, but we can feel change - permanent change - knocking at the gate.