It's that time of year again, when getting dirty is all part of the fun.
We are gardening again after our long winter vacation. I have been digging a hole for an apricot tree for days now. Our dirt becomes rock hard about one foot down. Everytime I dig a hole, I grow two-legged creatures that are very unusual. One of them tries to garden wearing Hello Kitty platform flip flops. One creature thinks that dirt and small pebbles are excellent snack foods, especially mixed with a drippy nose from incoming chompers. The third one can't wait to have the tree in the ground so that he can christen it, boy style. Or is that dog-style? Oh, potty training what an amusing journey you are.
I am learning patience, oh yes. Patience is required while planting seeds around toddlers with shovels and babies with happy feet. I am patient as my daughter hunts for worms, rolly pollies and lady bugs when she is supposed to be putting seeds in the ground or fetching a tool for me.
My aunt once mispelled a word in her blog calling her plantings a field of impatience, not a field of impatiens. How true that is! If we choose to dwell on the weeds that grow amidst the beneficial seeds that we nurture, we will only harvest resentment and discord.
The moral of this story? "Let them be little," as a country singer named Billy Dean sings. "They're only that way for a while." So I take a lot of pictures with my kids sitting in my still empty holes, then tomorrow, I will buy a little fence for my newly planted seeds. I will just be happy with growing a family that likes to be together, a little dirty, but together.
Thank goodness for my garden gate that comes with a nice latch on it too.
