The Big C and Gardening

I'm loving the new Showtime series "The Big C" starring Laura Linney as "Cathy" along with fabulous supprting cast including sexy Idris Elba. This week's episode "Blue-Eyed Iris" really struck a nerve. Cathy visits her local garden center and looks at a stack of bagged iris bulbs then ends up buying several pots of already blooming iris instead. Cathy, you see, has the "Big C" aka terminal cancer and next spring for her may not come. Gardening is an exercise of hope and patience. You are often planning and planting for the future. Delayed gratification and sweet anticipation is built into the system. But what if this was your last planting season... ever. What would you grow? Would your gardening change? I know mine would. I'd put in more annuals and instant color. I'd buy plants that are larger and more mature. I'd plant things that I've always wanted to try, yet never got around to doing. So then I have to ask myself, if it would change with a terminal illness and we all know that life is fleeting, why am I not already doing that now?