Monday, March 25, 2013

Digging

Spring is coming. In our climate zone spring lasts for such a short time (we have a loooong winter and a loooong summer, but spring and fall seem like just a spit in the wind). Bright green blades are beginning to shoot up amid the brown drab, hibernated grass left by winter storms. Tulip and daffodil bulbs are starting to peek through the soil. I love spring. It brings a much needed glimmer of hope after a long cold, dark winter. However, spring also means yard work (which I don't love). I don't necessarily mind it, and I do it, but it takes an enormous amount of time and effort. My dream is to wake every morning to an immaculately manicured yard brimming profusely with flowers (with no effort on my part).

He loves spring. He also loves yard work. He can't wait for the first semi-seasonal day so He can brush the dirt off those little green shoots. It is all very exciting and hopeful in the first flush of new bloom; digging in soft dirt, planting annuals, pruning old wood off the flowering trees. We get out the planter boxes and fill them with a new color combination of flowers, retrieve the patio furniture from the shed and sweep it free of cobwebs, and tidy up all the flower beds. Finally, when the yard is freshly groomed, we are ready to spend the summer relaxing on the patio. Hmmmmm. That is my fantasy. Reality is much harsher than that.



After the flush of spring has worn off, summer looms long ahead. The hot, scorching dog days of summer, when the last thing anyone wants to do is yard work seem endless. Grudgingly I force myself up unnaturally early to avoid the heat of the day, and weed those flower beds that mock me. By mid July I hate my yard and I completely understand the attraction of condominiums. I know it is semantics, but for me gardening and weeding shouldn't go together. The first implies industry, the second drudgery. Just when I think I am sincerely going to weep while contemplating weeding one more blazing day, He takes it over. He says it is therapeutic, pulling, eradicating, and annihilating those persistent weeds. As summer reaches its nastiest temperatures He can be found on weekends, early in the morning, mid afternoon, and even into the evening still at it. My energizer bunny of yard word. I fade out, as He keeps going.

He weeds...

...one more reason I love Him.

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