In the spring, becomes the geranium....

When I am in my garden on a cold January day and notice few geraniums who are poking their heads through the mulch (as that flower type is doing in the photo directly above) that was put there to protect them during a cold winter days, I think of some lines from a The Rose, a song written by Amanda McBroome. 

Her song was made popular by Bette Midler and the lyrics I'm thinking of go like this, "...just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose."

In this instance, my geraniums weren't lying beneath the bitter snow (although they were doing that last month), they are lying beneath layers of mulch put in their container when iI did my annual garden winterizing ritual.

". . . in the spring becomes the rose."

Most folks know that Amanda McBroome wrote this song (The Rose), and as the month of April begins, struggling to bring spring — while conflict and strife seem to reign throughout the world — I pray her song provides the hope and promise that McBroome intended as she wrote The Rose.  And no, she is not upset that Bette Midler gets most of the "credit" for the song, instead she says, "I would not have written this song if it had not been for Bette Midler." 


Meanwhile, since my garden (including my rose), still sleeps in its burlap wrapped* state (which I described in a previous post), and since it appears to have endured having had mountains of snow fall on it all winter while I continue to struggle with personal "setbacks," (as perhaps you do as well, dear reader), today I will share McBroome's consolation: "just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose.

An Apple for the Teacher: Celebrating Apple's Variety of Gifts and One Spirit

It has been written that there are "a variety of gifts but one spirit," and while, in this instance, it is the spiritual gifts from God that are being referred to, I would like to equate this passage with a place— a place where there are a variety of gifts and one spirit, and that place is the Apple Store on 67th and Broadway, in the Upper Westside of Manhattan, where the variety of gifts are from the talented people who work there, and from their common spirit which seems to be a willingness to share knowledge. Today I will be "celebrating" my anniversary of one-to-one sessions that I began taking at this location on March 22nd 2010. I heard about the one-to-one program from a man named Orlando whom I met (at that time he was an Apple 67 greeter), when I wandered into the store last March.