Every year around this time my husband asks me what I want done with the garden. Before I begin for real here I need to tell you that when he "asks" me, he's really telling me or he pretends I'm in charge and then he does whatever he wants. For example: our roses. When we got married he began a lovely Valentine's Day tradition of buying me a rose plant every year. We have lots of roses. But we got in a little scuffle early in our marriage about how and when the roses were to be pruned. I said in January but he says February - the later the better and prune those babies so far back one has to literally use a magnifying glass to find where the stems will spring forth. The first year he did this I was horrified! It looked like our poor bushes got a really bad haircut. Now, he doesn't discuss pruning roses or any other plant's trimming needs with me. He knows better. And I saunter by the stumps of mystery (as I call them) without comment these days.
Over the years my sweet husband has planted a beautiful garden full of lush flowers and yes, our roses are lovely every year. He tends the plants with love and care and I have months of fresh flowers for my home because he has a very green thumb. He still asks me what I want to do but I know it's a game of cat and mouse for him. The plants being the mice. One year we had over 150 dahlia plants - all different varieties. Now? We have exactly zero dahlias. Same story with our peonies. But I know for sure we'll always have roses. He tends to leave plants that take care of themselves alone like any type of bulb flower or our honeysuckle vine, hostas, and fuchsia that comes back year after year along with various other shrubbery.
When it comes to weeds, slugs or any other interloper he shows no mercy and faithfully buys fragrant bark dust for the flower beds. Our home in the summer is a veritable show of color. Right now our daffodils are putting on a show that would put a Broadway musical to shame. Tulips are pushing through like a chorus and spring is surely in the air.
As the months go by and summer comes I look forward to seeing what my dear husband has decided to plant or keep and try not to notice what has mysteriously disappeared. Life is indeed good.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
workout
Recently I joined a local gym. I've lost a considerable amount of weight and I was provided a chance to become a member at a reduced rate so I grabbed the brass ring.
When I walked into the club I met a nice guy named Tyler who would also be my personal trainer.
He asked me some questions about my health and what my goals were and we came up with a plan that included lifting weights and participating in a class. Tyler walked me through the weight circuit and wrote out my plan and I attended Zumba which I immediately fell in love with. Something about dancing like an idiot in the dark with a disco ball spinning sets my inhibitions free.
Getting to the gym to workout wasn't really a problem and I felt almost instant results in my arms and legs. Strength was returning to my muscles that had laid dormant for just so many years and I was on a roll and was feeling so good!
Then I got sick for two weeks and wasn't able to go work out. I got sweet little emails from Tyler who said he missed me and in the meantime I could feel my abs turning back to jello.
So today I went back knowing that I'd have to start all over again in my journey to get physically fit. I got on the first machine and oh how good it felt to straighten my back and push against a slab of metal!
By the time I got to the seventh machine I had decided I would skip the overhead lateral because it hurt so bad and, after all, hadn't I just done the other weights? I hopped on the abdominal machine and it hit me. I need ALL nine of those machines to work out my kinks and build my muscles and then as I was in my third set I heard that sweet voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "isn't this just like your quest for the fruit of the Holy Spirit? to become spiritually fit?" Oh! Of course. There is one fruit out of the nine that I just can't seem to grow and if you know me you know which one it is but I'm not going to spoil the rest of you by telling you my worst fault. And believe me the other eight are an ongoing process of giving over to God what I think is mine. But that one area of my life just shrivels up and gets whacked back like a grapevine that just sits there not producing anything but ugly.
As I was lifting the last weights (the overhead lateral) I knew in my heart that I must yield everything to God or our relationship wouldn't be complete. My own little private circus in that little hollow part of my heart that I thought I could hide from God is the most glaring trait that keeps my heart from expanding, growing and yielding fruit.
Paul wrote in his letter to Phillipi in the 2nd chapter verse 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
So here is what I strive for, why I'm working out my faith: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The complete infilling of the Holy Spirit.
When I walked into the club I met a nice guy named Tyler who would also be my personal trainer.
He asked me some questions about my health and what my goals were and we came up with a plan that included lifting weights and participating in a class. Tyler walked me through the weight circuit and wrote out my plan and I attended Zumba which I immediately fell in love with. Something about dancing like an idiot in the dark with a disco ball spinning sets my inhibitions free.
Getting to the gym to workout wasn't really a problem and I felt almost instant results in my arms and legs. Strength was returning to my muscles that had laid dormant for just so many years and I was on a roll and was feeling so good!
Then I got sick for two weeks and wasn't able to go work out. I got sweet little emails from Tyler who said he missed me and in the meantime I could feel my abs turning back to jello.
So today I went back knowing that I'd have to start all over again in my journey to get physically fit. I got on the first machine and oh how good it felt to straighten my back and push against a slab of metal!
By the time I got to the seventh machine I had decided I would skip the overhead lateral because it hurt so bad and, after all, hadn't I just done the other weights? I hopped on the abdominal machine and it hit me. I need ALL nine of those machines to work out my kinks and build my muscles and then as I was in my third set I heard that sweet voice of the Holy Spirit saying, "isn't this just like your quest for the fruit of the Holy Spirit? to become spiritually fit?" Oh! Of course. There is one fruit out of the nine that I just can't seem to grow and if you know me you know which one it is but I'm not going to spoil the rest of you by telling you my worst fault. And believe me the other eight are an ongoing process of giving over to God what I think is mine. But that one area of my life just shrivels up and gets whacked back like a grapevine that just sits there not producing anything but ugly.
As I was lifting the last weights (the overhead lateral) I knew in my heart that I must yield everything to God or our relationship wouldn't be complete. My own little private circus in that little hollow part of my heart that I thought I could hide from God is the most glaring trait that keeps my heart from expanding, growing and yielding fruit.
Paul wrote in his letter to Phillipi in the 2nd chapter verse 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
So here is what I strive for, why I'm working out my faith: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The complete infilling of the Holy Spirit.
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