Marking My Territory

A dog, even a cat, marks his territory. The scent brings security. It also brings meaning. This is where they eat, rest, and get some loving, under the right conditions. The problem with Americans is that we do not mark our territories. Not all of us, just us secularized ones. My friend, Stephanie Brown marks her territory with meaning, and everything is alive for her. Everything marks the passages of her life. When you visit her, there are momentos of her journey all along the trail to her front door and beyond. I think God wants to teach me this and give me this faculty. 

For instance, in the courtyard, there are tulips growing. they have taken to the gentle sunlight in that area and are doing wonderfully. Patty planted them before she left. Loving friends sent them to us as momentos of life and of course they were Hans' national flower. It is like a piece of Hans' rests in the garden. They are the only colorful thing in the courtyard and a stark reminder of hope in an otherwise dismal courtyard. The wind makes a nasty daily covering of leaves and twigs. Patty marked our territory with meaning. We all love the tulips. 

So yesterday, under the premise that "If one is good, more is better" we planted Gerber daisies next to the tulips. Why? Because we are stupid. There are no hidden messages of meaning to us in these Gerbers, although they are beautiful. So today they will be moved. We shall create a Gerber Daisy garden some other place and meanwhile study the deeper meaning of the daisy. What is a daisy anyway? It can be a symbol for the church, I discovered, for the center of the daisy is really made up of hundreds of flowers, not just one—similar to the pineapple. It is a hybrid daughter of the sunflower.  I think I have some hybrid daughters also. 


I must learn to mark my territory if I am to live without Hans. My life must become a sacred garden, not just on the inside, but outside as well. 

This morning my task is to name the rooms of our house. I will sleep in the room named _______,  and in the same way, I must learn to mark my days. Fill them with meaning. I have never done this before. I will invest myself in meaning, in friends, and in the richness of this life, before I enter the next.