Cycle of Life

I have two types of hostas in my garden.  One type is massively huge with dark green leaves.  Fairy-like lavender flowers rise up out of the center in early August.  I sprinkle it with used coffee grounds every morning to keep the deer away.  The other hostas I have are brighter green with yellow edges and smaller.  Cone-shaped white blooms shoot up and towards the sky now, in mid-August when the sun is hot but the shade provides cover.  Over and over I am reminded of the cycle of life when I wander my garden.  Brought clearer after a visit to the vet to find my beloved, nearly 15 year old lab has arthritis and possibly kidney disease.  Of course I know a lab lives about 15 years, if lucky.  But my heart wrestles with it, tries to bargain with God.  As all 4 legs give out and she plops to the ground or winces while navigating the stairs, or looks up from the bottom of the pain climb and decides to go lay down, my heart breaks.  Sometimes I cry at night when my husband massages her before bed.  Such a sweet girl.  Does she hurt I wonder and worry?  I have confidence the medication the vet gave will help.  The short life of these flowers is a whole different thing in this contex with my dog in mind. A reminder that all living things have an expiration date.  Hostas can live up to 30 years before snails and slugs consume them.  Feeding so their own lives can go on.  This hosta will live long after Olivia passes to puppy heaven.  And it's likely this hosta will outlive me as I just turned 68.   This morning as my dog snores at my feet and I write in the ease of a cool summer morning,  I imagine a day, future forward.  A day when an owner who I may never know, wanders my garden and smiles at this very plant, just blooming its life away.