The mum was meant to sit atop the stump that we saved from the old maple tree that fell earlier this the summer. Dan brought over his chainsaw and carved a wedge from the stump to create a flat surface, transforming the stump into a pedestal for the future mum. Now that the future has arrived, we found that the stump was no longer ideal for the mum. The tall grasses – if you can believe it – dwarfed the stump. The mum was invisible from its stump-perch. That’s how the mum ended up sitting on the back deck where we can appreciate it. The stump remains mum-less.
Kerri took a photograph at the store of me holding the mum. I pretended that I was stealing the mum so it’s a picture of me in frozen-running-pose. The photo was for Dan so he might see that we didn’t have him cut a wedge from the stump for nothing. I am fond of the photo of my mock-mum-thievery. I am especially fond of Dan’s response when we reported that the mum sits on the back deck. “No!!!” he wrote, “It looks better on the stump!” Kerri sent a photo of the mum-on-the-stump, invisible behind the grasses. It didn’t change Dan’s opinion. “Stump, stump, stump…” he text-chanted.
Every time I walk by the mum on the deck I whisper, “Yes, mum,” or “Mum’s the word!” My self-amusement bar is obviously low. Actually, I am working hard at having a lighter heart. And, isn’t that an oxymoron? In theory a light heart should require little to no effort. A heavy heart should require effort! I believe that we are all born with light hearts that get overburdened along the way. All I know is that pretending to steal a mum, a mum that I now talk to, is a terrific antidote to heavy-heart-ed-ness.
In fact, placing a mum on the back deck in the waning days of September is an antidote to all manner of heaviness. Inviting a bit of beauty and inner-plant-conversation this late in the season, intentionally locating a mum where I must pass-by it several times a day just so I might whisper, “Yes, mum,” over and over again, makes me smile at the utter inanity…and light floods into my heart.
“Stump, stump, stump…” I hear Dan chant. Actually, it is the mum that voices Dan’s chant. It’s the reason I whisper to the mum. The mum chants (in Dan’s voice) “Stump, stump, stump…” and I respond, “Yes, mum!” or, if Kerri is close-by I whisper, “Mum’s the word.” Either way, it brings a smile and lightens the load from my otherwise heavy heart.
read Kerri’s blogpost about THE MUM
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