Pride and Relief

"Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get."

~Dale Carnegie

I've learned that planting bulbs requires extreme patience. Last year, as I planted each tiny bulb with the utmost of care, it hit me that I'd have to wait until Spring to see if I actually completed the task correctly. I'm not always the best with the whole delayed gratification thing, but on this, I had no choice.

I was sure that I had sprinkled just the right amount of bone meal and that I had positioned all the bulbs in the proper way, fat end up.

But, as spring tip-toed into my neighborhood and the days got a bit longer, I noticed that other lawns were dotted with yellow daffodils and that tiny green sprouts were emerging from my neighbors' flowerbeds.

But as much as I scoured the spots of the plantings, my investigations yielded nothing. Zero. Not even one tiny sprout.

Grr. I tossed around feelings of disappointment and failure, wondering how in the world I possibly managed to mess up planting dozens of bulbs. I figured that even if I somehow planted them incorrectly, wrong side up, that somewhere along the line I would have messed-up my messing-up and ended up with a winner.

Then, one day~one happy, happy, day~my eyes landed on a speck of green poking through the ground. Hallelujah!

But, weeks later, although a bit taller, that little green speck was still the only one.

Really? Seriously? For real? I thought. And as quick as they came, those feelings of success were replaced by my feeling as if I need some type of gardening counseling or tutoring.

Shame, oh the shame.

Apparently, good things take time. One morning, as I looked out the window, my eyes were treated to dozens of little shoots, poking through the crunchy dirt. Within days, they were reaching to the sun. And a few days after that, little buds were trying to push open and sing towards Mr. Golden.

Pride and relief washed over me. Whew. That was a close one. I'm happy to report that the lawn looks lovely with its newest additions, and I'm thrilled that I didn't bomb my first try at bulb planting.