RISK

Last weekend--when the weather was hot and sunny, and we had to open two windows just to cool off the kitchen when we cooked the Easter turkey—last weekend I had two pink geraniums. They were nice geraniums too, possibly a bit spindly after a winter’s rest, but nice anyhow, two different shades of pink, healthy green leaves—a few dead leaves maybe. Last weekend, when it was hot and sunny, and the dog wanted to be outside, and the sweet pea seeds begged us to plant them, and the pansies hitched a ride home from Home Depot to see if they could get themselves planted out on the warm veranda, and the wild flower seeds Lenora gave me as a present just for being on her side insisted that I get them into a pot so they could get going—last weekend I had two pink geraniums.
Well, last weekend those two pink geraniums saw what was happening all around them, the hustle and bustle of everybody getting out into the sun, and they got to nagging and pestering, the way only geraniums can. So what else could I do but put them out on the veranda? And then, last Tuesday when it snowed, what else could I do but move them up under the covered part of the veranda to protect them from the snow?
Last Wednesday, when it was colder than we wanted, though definitely not cold enough to keep snow on the ground—last Wednesday David said, “Those geraniums look a little sick.” So I took their pulse and found them still breathing.
“Just a little set back by the cold,” I crooned. I pride myself on being an optimist.
Well now, this weekend, when it’s still just about as sunny and just a little cooler, I’ve got two dead geraniums that used to be pink. But are they really dead, I mean, completely dead?
Perhaps next week, or maybe the week after, a client will sit in my office, a little bit afraid to try something a little bit risky. “Don’t be afraid to take a few risks,” I’ll say. “Think of life as a series of experiments. Some of them work out better than others. Some of them fail, and we just have to try something else.”
And I’ll mean it when I say it, though somewhere in the back of my head, my mind’s ear will hear a little chorus calling, “Yeah, right! That’s easy for you to say!”
It’s hard to silence geraniums, even when they appear to be dead.