Nature finds a way to show that life goes on after death

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

The daffodils are up in our little garden; their yellow heads basking in the shadow of the fallen tree, to signal the start of a new season of growth. But the man who planted them is three years under the soil since last Christmas – although his green fingers mean a little of him blooms again every spring.

The cherry tree they grow beside is also mostly gone because its life cycle wasn’t that of a giant oak, but the generosity of a previous owner of our house meant we got to cherish it for over a decade.

And its trunk still remains, a sort of memorial on one hand and a focal point on the other for the flowers and shrubs that were already planted in the soil between its massive overground roots.

In both cases, the people who planted them are gone but their toil survives them – and it gives us both a little pleasure and a pause for thought to remember them every time new life emerges from the soil.

Similarly, the grass margins on the outskirts of towns and small villages are suddenly springing back to life too, because others prepared the ground so we all could enjoy the view.

From the Tidy Towns Committees who repurposed old rowing boats or wheelbarrows into flower beds to the Council workers who turned roundabouts into a circle of colour, our days are a little brighter if only for that split second we see the fruits of their labour as we pass on by.

Our own daffs were planted by granddad – not my granddad; my father-in-law, but in the way we become known as ma or da, so Tom was known as granddad to us all – and any plant life around our little patch of green is almost certainly down to his work.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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