Every year it is a tradition that about the first of May I figure out that the garden isn’t ready and yet I want one. There’s a good bit of hullaballoo with the teenagers a few hurried trips for plants and seeds, and then…eventually after much complaining, rhetoric and upheaval sighs… we all give in and go outside. Outside is a wonderful place for a family to be. After the initial rounds of wails and gnashing of teeth by our teenagers (and threats of Facebook captures of said whining) we all settle into the practice of work as play in our lives.
Too busy we are….often. (as Yoda would say)
While working in the side yard yesterday I found that the bright orange lilies were blooming, but I hadn’t noticed them upon arrival from out of town work. Can you imagine missing 100 of these on your walkway? Uh hmm….shall we say time to slow down?
Saturday morning brought rain of mammoth proportions to North Alabama, enough time and space to relax and enjoy our home. (despite that the schedule said yard sale, the boxes in the garage said yard sale, the sale was not to be…and so God apparently orchestrated a fine Saturday morning rest and I took the hint!)
The afternoon brought rays of sunshine that allowed for all hands on deck to head to the back yard. Before the end of two hours there was laughing, fellowship, and fun where grumbling, gasping for air (no iphone!!) and lack of vision that gardening could be a good time for the teenagers and their parents. Fun however we had, and a spirit of accomplishment as we attacked the jungle of our citified back tiny yard and brought home some of the front yard’s elegance to the back yard. Beautiful things multiply and last year’s hostas are already 19 more simply by sharing what we had to the back yard. By sharing the front yard with the back, both were improved.
The back yard of our home was sorely neglected for years. We manage the front lawn, and its blooms, but no one really cared about the back past the deck. Boy isn’t that a three-D version of what too many times we do in our lives? Properly prepare what is seen while neglecting what is inside our own walls. The truth is most of us have around us what it takes to take care of what is within us….but seldom do consistently.
The beds are ready for planting, the teens proud of their work. All imperfectly, all perfectly wonderful in what the work brought to our hearts and minds…a place to dig, to work, to move earth in our hands, to tear out what isn’t right and to see that life begins again. It isn’t perfect, there is still work to do, but it is a beginning and the new beds and freshly cleared spaces will allow for new growth, just as it does in our lives. Before there can be a masterpiece, there has to be a canvas. What canvases bring possibilities to your life? Mine this weekend were empty beds and open spaces to create.
There is beauty all around us. We too often see only the pile of life… like the 16 yards or dirt that was in front of my office window. I had to push through it, step through it and shove it, but I’m opening pathways in my life to do what I seek to do…and sometimes that takes simply stopping and figuring it out with help. Our boys made quick work of the task, and they loved, after the grumbling, knowing they accomplished a task that was visibly measurable. Sometimes we forget that the soil feels good, the grit of work that brings pleasure in creating beauty in all its many forms. This weekend, clearing out brush, planting more seeds, mowing ungodly growth down allowed for a new thing to begin. More importantly for me, spending time with family in the yard, against everyone’s initial desire to be there, allowed for us to once again work together as a family and enjoy this place….a joyful place…called home. Oh how I love the bloom!
