I tell you, I am looking forward to the weather warming up. My Internet is best from the deck and it gets cold out there at night, quilt and all. Brrr…
These last few days I have steadily been working through my to-do list- the things I need to get done before leaving for the Editorial Board meeting next Wednesday. I’m getting there. One of the items on my list was weeding. Every since I’ve moved in here, I make an attempt at flowers on the deck. I love working in the earth and miss being able to do so. I also like having the natural beauty of the flowers around me. However, it seems every year I house sit so often that the flowers get neglected and die. Then there are all those weeds that pop up and take over the pot. Thus, the weeds needed to be pulled before Emma got here and Ali moves in.
Some of the pots have annual bulbs in them and things are already growing. I’m not sure what most of them are but they are growing! Still, when all the weeds were pulled, the pots looked bare so I decided to hope and try again by going shopping for flowers. This afternoon when I got home I settled into the task and planted them around the deck. Tomorrow I may even water them. (Today it rained.) I even have the fertilizer I never used from last year.
As I planted the flowers, I thought about my own life and the things that have been growing within me. Years ago, I was asked what I wanted to plant in my garden (as a metaphor for me) and it is a question that has stuck with me ever since. It’s strange how growth occurs- often unseen, unnoticed, then one day you turn and it’s there, that yellow daffodil out on the deck you never saw bloom. And now you’re really interested. You pay attention to it. You watch it grow and it delights you. These last few days as I have seen the difference between between my garden then and my garden now, I have been able to step back and enjoy the growth that has occured. I know there will be a lot more to come, in future and definately now, but right now, I am stopping to smell the roses and to appeciate how God has guided the flowers of my soul.
365-09 #100