A weed grows in Bonnie’s garden

Last night the phone rang and I settled in for a nice chat with LaMirada Bob and Bonnie his Beloved. (You may recall that Bonnie grows lavish roses and bougainvillea and orchids at the LaMirada Estate, while Bob her Beloved amuses himself by relating apocryphal stories of the fierce muskies that menaced my Rhinelander childhood.)

Unfortunately the news was not splendid.  It turns out that the garden Bonnie has cultivated in their lives has been infested with a particularly nasty Invasive Species that will have to be rooted out in the next week or so with the able assistance of a team of physicians.

Bonnie is irrepressible, and has set about making preparations for the campaign with a stout heart. LaMirada Bob is in shock. I am far, far away at the end of a telephone line, practically useless.  My brain flees.  Tough little beauties, I think, remembering the wild geraniums I found earlier in the week, blooming in the shelter of dry leaves.  Tough little beauties, celebrated by Stephanie Mills—the small, stubborn lives that refuse to give up.  Well, good.  Where there’s hope there’s life.  I find my voice, say something perfectly idiotic, as we do in these circumstances. 

Seven things I know about Bonnie:

• She grew up in the wilds of Montana and her spirit is just like that landscape: untamed serenity.
• She lived in southern California before it became Southern California and remembers when today’s vast tracts of exurbia were dairy farms and orchards.
• She has faced down tragedy more than once, and has prevailed with grace.
• She is mush before the gaze of a miniature poodle.
• She is not either a Republican, although if she were she’d be my favorite one.
• She accepts me just the way I am. That is a tall order.
• She cleaned my basement. To tell you what that means is a whole ‘nother post, but it is really important to me so I’m putting it on this list anyway.

So . . . hold a good thought, will you?

Thank you, thank you for this day.  Thank you, thank you for this day.  Thank you, thank you for this day . . . that has Bonnie in it.