Marigolds as Meditation

As most gardeners know, 

the best way to keep marigolds growing thick and full of blossoms

 is to dead head the flowers that have finished blooming.

Sometimes I do this early in the morning,

but more often I enjoy dead heading them  in the late afternoon,

after the heat of the day has gone.

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There are some good reasons not to enjoy dead heading marigolds:

the strong odor, yellowed fingers, the multitudes of tiny "no-see-ums,"

little flying insects lighter than air and quicker than your ability to swat them away

as they rise from the flowers.

But this evening  I could hear bees buzzing,

cardinals chirping, and the low whirring sound of cicadas in the woods.

Dead heading marigolds becomes meditation.

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 I collect the spent flower heads in a bucket

and then toss them into the woods where I can see them from my kitchen window.
A beautiful golden swath of yellow and golden orange blossoms

brighten the otherwise dull tan and brown forest floor.

Marigolds as meditation--and as art.

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