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Lisa Wingate Tending Roses Quotes

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“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life,” Siddhārtha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. This quote symbolizes the idea that people worry so much about the future that they completely overlook the present and let time slip by them. In the book, “Tending Roses” by Lisa Wingate, reading her Grandma’s journal reminds Katie to live in the moment because her Grandma was so focused on upcoming tasks that all the plants grew tall, and the fireflies disappeared.
Her Grandma’s diary inspires Katie to live in the present because while her Grandma was so absorbed in undone chores, the plants grew up and matured. In paragraph 6 Katie’s Grandma reflects on her life, saying, “When my bones were not too weary from work done, and my thoughts not too frazzled from chores left to do,” and “ I looked upon those waving trees, or knobby-legged yearlings in the pasture, or the flowers by the road, and wondered how they grew so tall while my back was to them.” She acknowledges that her work consumed so much of her mind that she missed everything that happened around her. If she just took a step back and looked around her, then she would’ve seen the plants growing and budding into wonderful creations. …show more content…

In paragraph 9 she thinks back to when her children caught fireflies in a jar with her, but one day she forgot about them, “ I suppose they flew away one night as I lingered over mending, or soiled tableware, or a child’s lessons.” While she was busy with the housework the fireflies had already left. She was once like her children, mourning for the passing of the fireflies, but as time went by she had other things on her mind; thoughts of future endeavors like mending, teaching her children, or washing dishes dominated her mind, as she stopped saying goodbye to her old

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