Gardening is a spiritual experience for me

How does this...

get to look like this?

This morning it was only a 30 minute adventure from weed pulling to trimming around the brick. I'm not sure why it is but gardening seems to draw my thoughts to the very first garden and the great Gardener.

As I pull weeds, get dirt under my fingernails and try to avoid the bugs, my mind wanders to a place of peace, reflectiveness and desire to be closer to God. How amazing must the Garden of Eden been? All those beautiful plants, animals and trees, the soil rich and giving, no pests to sting you while you work. My little planter is no fancy garden but on a moderate summer morning kneeling next to the small bed seems less like work and more like a time of communion where the results are immediately gratifying as what looked like no more than a weed patch is tended into something much more pleasant to look at.

The rose bush, on the far end, was no more than a bundle of sticks I got at the Dollar store. Guessing it would never survive I planted it with little hope. Surprisingly, fertilizer, sun and water have brought out a lovely little bush that brings me great joy to look at. I might be that rose bush with little hope but if I let myself be tended, seeking God daily, his loving care would make my life bloom.

Sadly, my devotional life has looked more like my weed patch or the scraggly rose bush lately. Excuses, tiredness, small children and lack of desire have grown up around what had been a lovely ritual of time with the Father. Time to let the Gardener in, to fertilize, water and pull the weeds I guess.

Everyone needs a friend like Sally

I'm off to a slow blogging start! I won't try to fill in the 7 months between 1st and 2nd posts, onward and upward!

Before we purchased our big blue house Todd and I lived in a little rental about a mile away. It was a great place to start our family and we made good friends with the neighbors from across the street.

We first met Sally when we brought Sophia home from the hospital. There was a knock on the door and there she was with her then 4 year old son. (Sally admitted later she had been watching my belly grow as I tended the flowers in front of the house and she had asked her husband Brian if he could see anything pink or blue in the window.) Just hours after we put up an "It's a Girl!" banner on the front door, there they were at the front door with a baby girl present. We ran into each other taking walks, exchanged quick baby sitting for doctor appointments and blew bubbles in the front yard with our kids. We even had a nice Easter dinner together.

On moving day after purchasing our big blue house there was a protest sign firmly planted in our front yard... Sally was mad we were leaving. She had promised to picket, not help at all and there it was planted in our yard, a sign saying we were not allowed to leave! It didn't take long though and she came over with hubby and son to help load the truck.

Since chance encounters no longer happened in the front yard, we had to make a point to get together. We started meeting up at the park for play dates and picnics. One evening on the phone, lamenting we hadn't been together in a while and the fact that we both had to make dinner, we decided to have dinner together. We each gave a quick verbal inventory of the fridge contents mixed an matched a lovely dinner from each of our kitchens and whatever was bountiful in her garden. It turned out to be a GREAT meal and an AMAZING evening. We set the kids in front of a movie and the adults played a game. So, our get togethers got started!

When I decided to put a garden in our big back yard Sally helped me with the plans, what to plant, how and when. I dubbed her my "garden guru." She was on my call list as I started my home business and needed help with child care. She threw a great book party with me and helped me get started. When I came home from vacation with pneumonia she came and took my kiddoes for the day so I could rest! Her hubby Brian is a professional photographer and gave Sophia a free session for her 1st birthday and he took the most beautiful family pictures of us when Wesley was just a large bundle in my belly.

There are few friends as precious as the one who will bring her left overs over to mix with yours at the end of a long month, wash the dishes in your kitchen while you run an errand and bring you 8 pounds of green beans, plus help you can them all!

I am truly blessed and everyone needs a friend like Sally!