I Come to the Garden Alone...

We are gearing up for our first day at our homeschool co-op, St. Gregory the Great, tomorrow. How exciting! We had a wonderful, really fun day, last Saturday with the families from the co-op. The back-to-school picnic was hosted in one of the families homes. The children had a ball playing in the sprinklers with the other kids...and we adults had a grand time sipping wine and yakking it up in the shade. Or hiding out in the air conditioning...you do the math.
What an amazing group of people! Matt had a great time too, and that makes it all the more fun for me. You know how it is...you make new friends, and hope that your hubby will connect with them in some way. When he does see what you see, sigh. It doesn't always work that way, but when it does it's lovely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and later I wrote some more...

I looked out the kitchen windows this morning while sipping my coffee, and the yard called to me. I then spent a good part of the morning weeding out there. This darn mid-summer knee injury really threw a monkey wrench into my gardening plans. In early spring we created a little rock garden area next to the patio, complete with water fountain, plantings (all plants with varying shades of purple blooms), and my grandmothers beautifully rustic St. Francis statue. In the rock garden I also planted a wooden planter full of herbs that we've been enjoying all summer. What a treat. In May, the children and I created a "Mary Garden" in the back corner of the yard. We (let's get real, the grunt work was Matt and I, not the kids) planted the most fragrant pink rose bushes I've ever experienced. They smell exactly like rose essential oil! There are also various Hybrid lilies, Day Lilies, Columbine, Ballerina Guara, and Oriental Iris'. I also planted an Ingrid Bergman Rose bush next to the rock garden...and talk about a prolific bloomer! The most spectacular, velvet red roses. On the other side of the yard I planted two Lilac bushes, two Concord Grape vines...and in the back of the yard near the Mary Garden we planted a Peony. All these plants have flourished, despite the total lack of love and care they've had over the last month. I couldn't imagine balancing on one leg to weed...and I just couldn't ask Matt to do it, he was doing everything else that I couldn't do! So today I finally paid the piper, and went out there and tried to beat back the jungle. I swear, those weeds were trying to take over the yard. Much to my amazement, there didn't seem to be an casualties...probably thanks to all the rain we had over the last 2 months. Even the Bleeding Heart plant in the rock garden finally took off after seemingly struggling for it's life for most of the summer.

Why am I boring you with these details about my out-of-control gardens? As I was carefully pulling out more exotic looking weeds than I've ever seen, it got me thinking about the weeding my own life needs sometimes. I've been working to be focused on all the beauty in my life, because I can lean more towards being a glass half empty girl. I wore a bracelet this summer to help me stay conscious about rejecting negativity in my life in all it's insidious forms. It helped a lot! I stayed clear with myself about wanting to have healthy boundaries and not get caught up in the self-induced drama of other peoples lives. I worked on being more aware of my reflexive anger...and I'm still working on that! Matt and I did a lot of praying together this summer, and both are feeling like the Lord is smack dab in the middle of our lives...and it's incredible. I go through periods of seeming stagnancy...or so it feels...and then I have some internal and external catching up to do. I'm not sure what I'm catching up with, maybe my own expectations. Nonetheless, todays yard work made me think about the Great Gardener...who lets me flourish or flounder under my own steam, via my free will...but then can always be counted on to come in and start pulling out all the weeds that have grown in my life, when I call out for it. All this thinking has me humming a song I love...

In The Garden

"I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses; And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing; And the melody that He gave to me within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.

I'd stay in the garden with Him though the night around me be falling; But He bids me go; Through the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; And the joy we
share as we tarry there, none other has ever known."

Hugs, Brig