Our beloved arbor (My Sacred Life, day 31)

We put up this arbor years ago, picking the New Dawn roses planted at the base of each side of the arbor because we were given the advice that they were great climbers. We wanted to have the arbor covered all the way to the top by the rose branches.

The first couple of years, we tried training the rose branches. It turns out that New Dawn is a fast grower, but not necessarily a climber in this situation. Or, even particularly trainable.

We never got more than about four feet or so of the arbor covered on each side.

Last year, Julia had a brilliant idea: why not add a clematis to one side of the arch and see what happened? As you can see, the left side with only New Dawn shows the typical wild-and-crazy branches going where they darned-well please. The right side, though, where there is the rose visible toward the bottom, the clematis has taken off.

It won't make the top this year, as it has peaked as far as growth is concerned--time for those delicate, teeny white blossoms covering the vine to take their turn on stage, so no energy is devoted to growing now--yet we are encouraged.

So much like life, this arbor and our love of it. In the years we have worked with it, we have yet to see it become what we want it to be, but we love to sit in those blue chairs you can see in the background and look through the arbor toward the rest of the yard and other garden spaces within it.

For us, the lesson is clear: look toward what you hope to become, and love who you are right now. Loving who you are is the path to becoming who you seek to become.