Garden Therapy

OK, I confess, my garden is a mess!
When I first created it I had summers off and spent the greater part of every day weeding, planting, pruning, manicuring and pampering the plants that live there. It was beautiful! The work was my greatest joy.
Now I work my longest hours during the summer and have little time to "play" in the little patch of Earth I have the honor of caring for.
Gardening had become one more chore I just didn't really have enough time to do. Until yesterday, that is!
It was cold and windy and my arthritis was flaring. I made a deal with myself that if I just cleaned up the miscanthus by the pond that would be enough. I bundled up and dragged my aching bones out to the pond to cut back the old grass from the bed by the wall. As I was clipping away and cursing my old back, this handsome fellow was revealed!

Obviously, he was perfectly content with the old grass. It was his home. It offered protection from those that might have him for dinner and the biting wind. It was a pretty little home complete with a wild violet.
He watched me, making sure I didn't get carried away with taking what Mother Nature had so generously provided him.
I started to look at that messy bed through the eyes of this toad. It was a perfect place. It provides food and shelter. There is water near by. I'm so honored he chose my yard to live in! I began to wonder if it would be quite so inviting if it was manicured.
I looked around at what my garden had done when I was busy doing other things, and realized it was more beautiful from my neglect. All these scenes happened with little or no help from me.

The birds were singing, the waterfall was gently splashing. The lilacs smelled amazing and there was a beautiful hummingbird perched on a dead branch that I should have pruned long ago.I went back into the house several hours later smiling and content and realized my bones no longer ached and that my garden doesn't need me as much as I need it.