“I Ate Too Much” Excerpt by Jack Prelutsky
I ate too much turkey
I ate too much corn
I ate too much pudding and pie
I’m stuffed up with muffins
and much too much stuffin’
I’m probably going to die
I piled up my plate
And I ate and I ate..
Sound familiar?
I am so grateful to have had so many choices of food at the Thanksgiving table, and even more grateful to have shared it with my family. (I am especially grateful for the expand-a-waist pants I wore, too…) Sometimes being grateful catches you by surprise. Several weeks ago I went “tulip-crazy”—I planted tulip bulbs everywhere in my yard. Some will have fringy tops; some will look like parrots; some will remind you of freshly squeezed lemons. Even after planting them in my Sunny Bear Garden, my two front gardens, and in the planters near my back deck, I still had some left over. I immediately thought of my neighbors next door and their young daughter. We don’t really know each other except to wave in passing. Last summer , as I was working in the garden, they remarked at how beautiful my front gardens were as they got into their car. I was so touched and so pleased at this simple gesture of kindness. It encouraged me to keep tackling my “friends” the Weeds. This past summer, as I walked by their apartment building, I was completely surprised to see two new small planters and two large trellises by their front door. They were going to have a mini garden! The wife of the family confirmed it: “My husband wants to talk with you about growing flowers in our planters.” Wow! I felt like I had paid my plant passion forward! Now I knew the leftover tulip bulbs would be perfect for their mini garden in the fall. I put the tulip bulbs in the original bag, stapled a note to it (Hi, neighbors! Thought your daughter would get a kick out of planting these bulbs!) , and hung it on their doorknob. I took my usual morning walk to the ocean and on the way back noticed that the bag was gone. Yay! I went around the side of my house and saw a bag hanging on my doorknob. Oh, no! Had they returned the tulip bulbs? I lifted the bag off the doorknob and saw a note stapled to it. “Thank you for the bulbs! Your Neighbors next door.” There was something in the bag. I peered inside and there were dahlia tubers in the bottom. DAHLIAS???!!! I love dahlias! Suddenly a feeling of gratitude swept over me: grateful to have inspired someone else to create their own garden; grateful that we had communicated in a simple but mighty way; grateful that kindness really does exist–still!
Gratitude all around!
