Grieving Process in Kentucky

White Pine with Robin's nest after ice storm

A few weeks ago, we traveled through Kentucky. Residents of the beautiful bluegrass state were in the process of cleaning up the devastation caused by a winter ice/wind storm.

From southern Illinois through the entire length of Kentucky, tree and state workers were pulling the debris from the interstates. We could see where many had been across roadways.

One of the worst areas had a field the size of a city block piled high with broken trees.

Considering the small view from the interstate, I can't imagine multiplying this for the rest of the state. No wonder electric line crews from all over the Midwest were in Kentucky for weeks.

As we watched mile after mile of the damage, I was so grieved for the residents of this state that I totally forgot to take pictures. At that, a picture can not really capture how it looked.

I had seen pictures and heard first hand accounts from a Kentucky woman who writes a column for the Dave's Garden web site. Her descriptions, although vivid, did not prepare me for the real picture.

She has written several follow-up discussions and it is evident, as a gardener and resident of that beautiful state, she is working through the grieving process. This may sound too trivial a loss to the person who isn't a nature lover, but I understand.

Grieving the loss of nature's beauty, is the loss of something that soothed and brought peace. It is the loss of a kind of beauty that brings joy. It is the acknowledgement that we have been blessed by living in an area of this world so full of abundance.

As all gardeners do, Kentucky nature lovers will again turn their faces towards the spring sun and recover.

“Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees

That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,

So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray

For the Glory of the Garden, that it may not pass away!”

Rudyard Kipling, The Glory of the Garden