Jardín Antigüeño: Hortensias

Sometimes you live so fast that before you know it, life is over. Life is not a race that you want to win. Life is rather marathon where you want to finish last, just like Tono Ballena and his last position in the yearly Medio Maraton de las Rosas. But if you’re tricked into running the rat race, you have to find ways to slow you down, to pause to smell the coffee, to stop long enough to realized life is more than money.

Tending a garden is one sure way to pause and enjoy the ephemeral moments that make up life. When I live in the U.S. I never care for gardens; I could not name any flowers except for roses or carnations; I didn’t know the names of plants, except for the most obvious.

Life in La Antigua Guatemala is so much different, full a little pauses, with gardens everywhere you go. Now, I am learning the names of many flowers and plants. Heck, I now tend for a garden and have long talks with our gardener. I even found the courage to share with you many of the plants found in and around Antigua Guatemala in series entitled Guateflora. I still make mistakes; just the other day that I called birds of paradise some exotic flowers which in realty were heliconias. I am glad to know that if I make a mistake, you guys come forth to correct me.

A little over-sharing every once in a while doesn’t hurt, right? All the flowers in the Jardín Antigüeño series come from our garden. As you can see if you browse the Jardín Antigüeño series, I have now plenty of reasons to pause and enjoy the beauty that Nature offers. I am far from being The Constant Gardener, like Jenn Klee, but I am slowly learning.

How are you living your life? Do you have enough pauses to slow you down?

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