Last evening I planted a grapevine (#4481)

      A friend brought over a grapevine yesterday and asked me if I wanted it. I wasn't sure I wanted it but on instinct just said yes and then put it into a bucket of water. I wasn't feeling great at that moment of high noon with the sun blaring down and all but I did at least put the grapevine in a large bucket of water in the shade. I am no expert at planting grapevines but the old put it into the ground and drench it with water concept seemed sufficient. So as I started to feel better toward the evening I did go out to the back chain link fence and dig a good sized hole between to the last two remaining grapevines I had left.
     I used to have four grapevines when I first moved here but two of them did not make it over the years. So as I put this new fresh grapevine into the ground between the two older ones I had a reflective experience. I thought about how the new grapevine will now have another more experienced grapevine on either side of it and how the older grapevines now have a younger grapevine between the two of them. A sort of cathartic moment as I could sense. For me it was a more personal reflection as I have had to dig in my backyard with a shovel for other reasons than burying roots. My little animals that have passed over the years are buried in my yard and so many reminders are all around me of their lives with me.
     So this time I got to add a life to the yard instead of hide the end of one. This was good for me as the cycle of life keeps pointing out. When I was young new lives were blossoming all around me. But now that I am older it seems that lives are ending more so than beginning. This isn't a tragedy, it is the normal way of how our existence is lived. Yet in my soul I always feel the loss or gain in varying measures of sadness or happiness. That little grapevine yesterday was a real aware moment for me and it was good that I was by myself for the planting of it because the gravity of the moment was able to play out in a somber and respectful way in my mind and soul.