Satisfaction (from both sides)

After a long hard day working in the garden, I stand there and survey how everything is coming along so nicely, and I marvel once again at how nature provides such beauty in the simple act of a blooming flower.

I smile as the warmth of satisfaction and accomplishment washes over me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath to catch the faint perfume of this garden well tended. I want to linger in this heady fragrance but alas another reality draws me away and slowly brings me back to face the fact that I must leave the garden behind me for the day.

As I turn to head for the gate that leads to that other world, I catch the faint movement of a collective salute from all of my plants. Perhaps they thank me for taking such good care of them that they may survive yet another day.

Perhaps it is really only my imagination but when I stop to look one final time, I see that they are each standing a little taller than they did yesterday.