Prime time in the garden

This time of year is prime time for our garden, both in terms of enjoying its beauty and of being able to work in it without risking heatstroke. For the past couple of weeks, I've been taking full advantage of the weather and spending a good part of each day working in it....and capping off the work day by enjoying happy hour in the gazebo .Although it seems we are always in the midst of some new project, most of what I usually do is rather mundane and repetitive. Plant, mulch, water, weed, and repeat.

When I was a child I dreamed that I would someday accomplish something great that would change the world for the better- discover a cure for cancer, or invent a time machine so that I could go back in history and "put right what once went wrong" (and this was years before I watched my first episode of Quantum Leap), or possibly wind up in a cannibal stewpot as a martyr for my faith. I didn't become a doctor, or a quantum physicist, or a missionary. Instead I became a teacher, a wife, and a mother, and so far have led a rather ordinary life. Some might even think it has been rather mundane and repetitive. I am learning not to see it that way.

Like gardening, life is organic and evolving. It is made up of many small actions that may seem inconsequential or boring at the time, but have the cumulative effect of creating a greater whole, one that is (hopefully) beautiful. It's fun to imagine and start exciting new projects, yet we still need to keep up with the weeding and the watering.

Our backyard garden isn't perfect, but it brings pleasure and beauty to us and to others who spend time in it. I hope that at the end of the day, my life is as beautiful as our garden. And if by some chance I actually invent that time machine, I will certainly go back and warn my past self not to plant Mexican primrose!