Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul: 101 Stories to Sow Seeds of Love, Hope and Laughter

The Plum Pretty Sister\ \ \ There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.\ \ Elizabeth Lawrence\ \ \ \ \ Justin was a climber. By one and a half, he had discovered the purple plum tree in the backyard, and its friendly branches became his favorite hangout.\ \ At first he would climb just a few feet and make himself comfortable in the curve where the trunk met the branches. Soon he was building himself a small fort and dragging his toy tractors and trucks up to their new garage.\ \ One day when he was two, Justin was playing in the tree as usual. I turned my back to prune the rosebush, and he disappeared.\ \ "Justin, where are you?" I hollered.\ \ His tiny voice called back, "Up here, Mommy, picking all the plums for you!"\ \ \ \ When Justin was three, I became pregnant. My husband and I explained to him that we were going to have another baby as a playmate for him.\ \ He was very excited, kissed my tummy and said, "Hello, baby, I'm your big brother, Justin."\ \ From the beginning he was sure he was going to have a little sister, and every day he'd beg to know if she was ready to play yet. When I explained that the baby wasn't arriving until the end of June, he seemed confused.\ \ One day he asked, "When is June, Mommy?"\ \ I realized I needed a better explanation; how could a three-year-old know what "June" meant? Just then, as Justin climbed into the low branches of the plum tree, he gave me the answer I was looking for . . . his special tree.\ \ "Justin, thebaby is going to be born when the plums are ripe. You can keep me posted when that will be, okay?" I wasn't completely sure if I was on target, but the gardener in me was confident I'd be close enough.\ \ Oh, he was excited! Now Justin had a way to know when his new baby sister would come to play. From that moment on, he checked the old plum tree several times a day and reported his findings to me. Of course, he was quite concerned in November when all the leaves fell off the tree. By January, with the cold and the rains, he was truly worried whether his baby would be cold and wet like his tree. He whispered to my tummy that the tree was strong and that she (the baby) had to be strong too, and make it through the winter.\ \ By February a few purple leaves began to shoot forth, and his excitement couldn't be contained.\ \ "My tree is growing, Mommy! Pretty soon she'll have baby plums, and then I'll have my baby sister."\ \ March brought the plum's beautiful tiny white flowers, and Justin was overjoyed.\ \ "She's b'ooming, Mommy!" he chattered, struggling with the word "blooming." He rushed to kiss my tummy and got kicked in the mouth.\ \ "The baby's moving, Mommy, she's b'ooming, too. I think she wants to come out and see the flowers."\ \ So it went for the next couple of months, as Justin checked every detail of his precious plum tree and reported to me about the flowers turning to tiny beads that would become plums.\ \ The rebirth of his tree gave me ample opportunity to explain the development of the fetus that was growing inside me. Sometimes I think he believed I had actually planted a "baby seed" inside my tummy, because when I drank water he'd say things like, "You're watering our little flower, Mommy!" I'd laugh and once again explain in simple terms the story of the birds and the bees, the plants and the trees.\ \ June finally arrived, and so did the purple plums. At first they were fairly small, but Justin climbed his tree anyway to pick some plums off the branches where the sun shone warmest. He brought them to me to let me know the baby wasn't ripe yet.\ \ I felt ripe! I was ready to pop! When were the plums going to start falling from that darn tree?\ \ Justin would rub my tummy and talk to his baby sister, telling her she had to wait a little longer because the fruit was not ready to be picked yet. His forays into the plum tree lasted longer each day, as if he was coaxing the tree to ripen quickly. He talked to the tree and thanked it for letting him know about this important event in his life. Then one day, it happened. Justin came running into the house, his eyes as big as saucers, with a plastic bucket full to the brim of juicy purple plums.\ \ "Hurry, Mommy, hurry!" he shouted. "She's coming, she's coming! The plums are ripe, the plums are ripe!",\ \ I laughed uncontrollably as Justin stared at my stomach, as if he expected to see his baby sister erupt any moment. That morning I did feel a bit queasy, and it wasn't because I had a dental appointment.\ \ Before we left the house, Justin went out to hug his plum tree and whisper that today was the day his "plum pretty sister" would arrive. He was certain.\ \ As I sat in the dental chair, the labor pains began, just as Justin had predicted. Our "plum" baby was coming! I called my parents, and my husband rushed me to the hospital. At 6:03 p.m. on June 22, the day that will forever live in family fame as "Plum Pretty Sister Day," our daughter was born. We didn't name her Purple Plum as Justin suggested, but chose another favorite flower, Heather.\ \ At Heather's homecoming, Justin kissed his new playmate and presented her with his plastic bucket, full to the brim with sweet, ripe, purple plums.\ \ "These are for you," he said proudly.\ \ Justin and Heather are now teenagers, and the plum tree has become our bonding symbol. Although we moved from the home that housed Justin's favorite plum tree, the first tree to be planted in our new yard was a purple plum, so that Justin and Heather could know when to expect her special day. Throughout their growing-up years, the children spent countless hours nestled in the branches, counting down the days through the birth of leaves, flowers, buds and fruit. Our birthday parties are always festooned with plum branches and baskets brimming with freshly picked purple plums. Because as Mother Nature—and Justin—would have it, for the last fifteen years, the purple plum has ripened exactly on June 22.\ \ Cynthia Brian\ \ (c)2000. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marion Owen, Cindy Buck, Carol Sturgulewski, Pat Stone, Cynthia Brian. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.\ \ \ \

AcknowledgmentsxvIntroductionxxiShare with Usxxiii1.The Joy Of GardeningLove and Daffodils Forever2The Garden Guard6To Own Something Beautiful9The Wedding Gift12Blossie14Planting Day19Street Smarts23A Veteran's Garden25Gardening in Our Blood28Butter Beans and Bulldogs30Ladies of the Garden Club35I'll Plant Anything39The Rose Babies42Of Moose and Men45A Garden Is to Grow49The $100,000 Stray Cat542.Blossoming FriendshipsAs Thyself59Ruby's Roses64Garden Meditations68An American Beauty70The World's Largest Rose Tree74The Man Who Lived in a Box77The Tulip Tradition81The Golden Girls84Madeleine's Wheelbarrow883.Love In BloomTwins Entwined92Accidental Blessings97First Penny100Keeping the Harvest103Say It with ... a Rhododendron106Girls Like Roses109Romeo Sets the Stage113Unspoken Love115Tall Corn117The Best of Wives1204.Making A DifferencePop's Farm124Just Keep Planting127Food from the 'Hood132Angel of Mercy136Calcutta Neighbors139To Diana with Love, from Canada144The Loveliest of Gifts149The Kids on the Point153A Healing Place157A Room Full of Roses160A Row for the Hungry164The Timely Letter167A Million Trees170An Angel in Shirtsleeves1755.Little SproutsIva Mae's Birthday181The Plum Pretty Sister185Luther Burbank and the Disappearing Raspberries189Brian192Gone Fishin'193A Garden So Rich195The Sock Garden199My Mother's Cure2026.The Seasons Of LifeMike and the Grass208God's Mountain Garden210Rusty Nails214Flowers for a Newborn Child217The Day the Lilies Bloomed220The Bubbup Bush223A Hug from Heaven228Robbie's Mission231A Garden for Four234Roses for Rose237Buddies241A Lesson in Love243Garden Crime246Yellow Irises2487.Overcoming ObstaclesBlack Tulips254Downwind from Flowers259Of War and Roses263The Next Best Thing265Tough Love266A Tree House for Everyone271Mandela's Garden274You Forgot Something277Lean Times281Hummingbirds in Hell's Kitchen284Sunflowers in Beijing2878.The Family TreeThe Burning of the Leaves292The Perfect Garden296A Bedside Story300Lilacs for Mother's Day303Nona's Garden306My Money Tree310A Son's Harvest312Honest Mike315A Couple of Cacti318Prayer of a Gardening Mother322Let's Go Thump a Melon3249.PotpourriThe Christmas Tree330Buried Treasure332The Farmer and the Preacher335A Hard Act to Follow337The Wreath340A Few Strings Attached343A Gift of Grace345One at a Time349More Chicken Soup?353More Garden Stories?354Helping Gardeners Help Others355Who Is Jack Canfield?358Who Is Mark Victor Hansen?359Who Is Cynthia Brian?360Who Is Cindy Buck?361Who Is Marion Owen?362Who Is Pat Stone?363Who Is Carol Sturgulewski?364Contributors365Permissions (continued)377

\ From Barnes & NobleThe Barnes & Noble Review\ Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul? Wait: We already have Chicken Soup for adults, kids, teens, preteens, expectant mothers, Christian families, and cat owners. Not even the Maccabees make soup last this long, right? \ Not so. Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul is as fresh as the first Chicken Soup books, and twice as fun. It includes cartoons, anecdotes, stories, and poems -- all focused on the pleasures of dirt and petal. Some stories are fabulous; some are touching. Some feature prose of surprising prettiness, like Anirban Gupta's description his citified patch: "a dainty little thing," he writes, "about the size of ten saris stretched out to dry on a hot summer day."\ The stories differ, but every piece in this happy collection reflects on the importance of playing with the earth and the significance of creating beauty. As Dan Barker remarks in his essay: "People are always asking, 'What is the purpose of life?' That's easy. Relieve suffering. Create beauty. Make gardens." Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul will keep you company while you do. (Jesse Gale)\ \ \