Two Snakes

(The Ground Beneath Our Feet)

As soon as the winter snows had melted and my flowerbeds became visible again, I was in the garden planning, digging and moving flowers. It is such a joy to watch all of the little buds grow into maturity throughout the spring and summer.

I went for a quick visit, up to my parents’ house, to steal some flowers from my mom’s garden to add to my own. While I was there my mom gave me a small box filled with small blue ceramic tiles. She thought that I might use them to build a tabletop, but I had a more fun idea…

I decided to use them to add a little splash of colour to my flower gardens. I like wiggly lines, so I placed the tiles in circles around some accent rocks and laid other tiles together to create flowing curves.

I had enough tiles to create designs in two of my flowerbeds. It wasn’t until afterwards that I noticed my designs resembled snakes. Since snakes are very respected creatures as guardians against mice, squirrels and other rodents, I thought that this would make a positive symbol – or totem – to ensure the success of my garden.

If you can imagine yourself being a mouse, wandering through my garden, and you’ve just pushed a few hostas aside, I’m sure you would think that you just crossed the path of this snake… before you turned around and fled for your life!!!

Another thing that I took note of, after the fact, was that I had created two snake guardians for my gardens - twin snakes, placed in a symmetrical formation. Since I’m a Gemini and symmetrical twins are my birth totems, I took this as another sign of good fortune for my flowers!!

Clearly, you can see the development of all the flowers in this garden, as you look from picture to picture.

The most significant growth can be seen when you look at the flowers that are near the top of these photos, at the base of the cedar tree.

I’ve mentioned, before, when talking about the transplanting of flowers, that the first year of growth is concentrated on root growth and healing.

This year, this garden had a few nice flowers, but next year this entire space will fill with lots of green leaves and many many flowers! Most of what you see in this photo will be double in size, next year. I can’t wait!!!

The most significant change in this series of photos, is found just to the left of the centre, near the grass border of the garden. In the first photo, you can see two very small plants. In the second photo, you can see that the plants have grown to about six inches and that small flowers are beginning to appear. In the third photo, these plants have tripled in size and they are absolutely full of flowers… Snapdragons that is!!!

This is one of the macro photos I took of the Snapdragons during the height of their bloom. Gorgeous n’est pas?!

One interesting phenomenon that I witnessed with these ceramic tiles is that they always seem to be on the move!

I placed the tiles in nice curvy lines, laid flat on the surface of the soil, but daily, I could see them moving ever so slightly.

After a few weeks, the snake designs almost became unrecognizable cuz the tiles had moved soooo much!

How could this be?

I thought that the rain may be to blame, partly. The movement of the rain water, both above and below the tiles may have caused some slight movement. I thought that worms and other underground insects and creepy crawlies might be causing the soil to move as they moved underneath the tiles. Even the sun, may be partly to blame. The sun warms and dries the soil surrounding each tile, but the tiles have cool, moist soil beneath them, so some kind of friction action may be occurring. I think that each one of these facts played a small role in this phenomenon, but then my mind expanded… I began to think globally!

I began thinking about the ever-changing flow of ocean waves. I remembered something from my high school science class, where we recognized that the air that we breathe flows around the surface of the Earth in similar patterns as ocean waves. I opened my mind to think that the entire surface of the Earth may be flowing in similar ways, though so much more slowly, and through this thinking I believe I came one step closer to understanding this phenomenon.

It was through these thoughts that I felt a deep connection with life and the Earth.

Funny – eh! It all started so simply… I started by planting flowers – thinking of their coming beauty and the joy they will bring to my life. I added a little art – to compliment and pay respects to Nature. I made an observation that puzzled me – keeping my humble for my limited knowledge. I went looking for answers – which took my mind and connected it with the heartbeat of the Earth. I found my devotion – to all of life’s mysteries. I became peaceful!

Jim