Tending Ping's Garden
I got up shortly after 5:00 this morning. I prepared but didn't drink much coffee. The Ruta Maya coffee is a medium roast and its just doesn't do much for me. I will pick up some dark roast coffee beans at Costco today. After reading the newspaper, I was off to the office.
The office was rather warm, however, so I was back home by 7:30. It looked like a good time to plant the other 7 plants that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I had placed them in Ping's garden in their little pots and watered them each morning, but it was time to let them put down roots where they are intended to reside permanently.
I worked quickly in the early morning before the rays of the sun were clearing the trees in our neighborhood. It was still very humid, and I sweated through my shirt rather quickly. I wonder how Ping does this for an hour or more every day, I was thinking. Satisfied with my effort, I watered the entire flower garden before coming inside.
After I shaved and showered, I put away the dishes that Cici had washed last night. Then I took out the rice cooker and started a pot of rice cooking so I can let it cool, then refrigerate it and get it nice and cold. By this evening it will be cold enough to use for making fried rice, which Cici and I both love to eat.
This time as I worked I was thinking about Ping's garden. Even when I am inside our home, working in our kitchen, I am tending Ping's garden, I realized. When I take a glass of water to Cici each morning when I awaken her for the day, I am tending Ping's garden. When I make sure that Cici practices her gu zheng and her flute, and supervise her reading of her summer books for English class, I am tending Ping's garden. When I cook Cici's favorite foods and worry about whether she is eating healthy foods, I am tending Ping's garden.
Ping's garden, it came to me, is not in some dirt outside our garage door. The garden that Ping has planted and cultivated so carefully in America is her family, wherever we are, whatever we are doing. That she would trust me to tend her garden in her absence says a lot about our relationship. We are nearing the half way point of her absence. If you ask me, I will tell you that I think her garden has grown during her absence. If you ask Cici, I think she would agree. We have grown closer together. We know each other much better. And we will both be very happy when our master gardener returns.
The office was rather warm, however, so I was back home by 7:30. It looked like a good time to plant the other 7 plants that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I had placed them in Ping's garden in their little pots and watered them each morning, but it was time to let them put down roots where they are intended to reside permanently.
I worked quickly in the early morning before the rays of the sun were clearing the trees in our neighborhood. It was still very humid, and I sweated through my shirt rather quickly. I wonder how Ping does this for an hour or more every day, I was thinking. Satisfied with my effort, I watered the entire flower garden before coming inside.
After I shaved and showered, I put away the dishes that Cici had washed last night. Then I took out the rice cooker and started a pot of rice cooking so I can let it cool, then refrigerate it and get it nice and cold. By this evening it will be cold enough to use for making fried rice, which Cici and I both love to eat.
This time as I worked I was thinking about Ping's garden. Even when I am inside our home, working in our kitchen, I am tending Ping's garden, I realized. When I take a glass of water to Cici each morning when I awaken her for the day, I am tending Ping's garden. When I make sure that Cici practices her gu zheng and her flute, and supervise her reading of her summer books for English class, I am tending Ping's garden. When I cook Cici's favorite foods and worry about whether she is eating healthy foods, I am tending Ping's garden.
Ping's garden, it came to me, is not in some dirt outside our garage door. The garden that Ping has planted and cultivated so carefully in America is her family, wherever we are, whatever we are doing. That she would trust me to tend her garden in her absence says a lot about our relationship. We are nearing the half way point of her absence. If you ask me, I will tell you that I think her garden has grown during her absence. If you ask Cici, I think she would agree. We have grown closer together. We know each other much better. And we will both be very happy when our master gardener returns.
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