Annoyance and Joy

First, let me apologize for an entire MONTH passing between posts.  I'll try diligently not to let it happen again.  My only reason is that my Dear Husband and I have bought a house!  It has taken quite alot of energy and thought getting closed on the house, moved, and getting the house looking liveable.  So I haven't posted.  But so much has brought me joy recently, and I'm excited to share it with you.

Today, bright and early this morning, I went out to weed my flower beds.  For those who know me well, you will already be laughing.  "Bright and early this morning" is not a phrase that happens in my life very often.  I am an avowed night owl.  Added to that, 'weed my flower beds' should have many people scratching their heads in confusion.  Mother Nature and I have a tentative and untrusting relationship at BEST.  I have agreed not to try to keep ANY of her creations, other than my fairly low-maintenance cats, and she has agreed not to attack me with a bee sting or poison ivy or....itchy grass...as long as I stay out of her territory.  And we've pretty much lived with this treaty for decades.

But as I said, Dear Husband and I bought a house, and she's a 103 year old Craftsman.  Along with a beautiful old house comes alot of well-established yard.  There are (if I counted correctly) eight trees in addition to three main flower beds and a fourth that we may dismantle, ultimately.  The three main flowerbeds go along the street view of the house, so at the very least, these have to be maintained for curb appeal and to be a responsible neighbor in our very pretty neighborhood.

So....'bright and early this morning', I was indeed out 'weeding my flower beds'.  At first it was an annoyance.  Because it's summer on the East Coast, and even at 9am the humidity is fierce.  Because Mother Nature and I are not yet allies.  Because I still have boxes that need to be unpacked inside.  But as I continued weeding, I could look back on the part of the bed I had finished, and see the fresh, moist black dirt around the happy little pansies and verbena, and see the verbena tucked up under the boxwoods for shade, and the petunias pouring down over the front porch railing.  Looking ahead of where I was working was an overgrown disaster, and there was a sense of challenge to put it right again and have it be a beautiful, orderly display of flowers.

So I started enjoying seeing the progress, and remembering summer evenings spent with my mom, sitting on the walk in front of our house, deadheading petunias and weeding flower beds that she had planted on either side of the walk.  Sometimes we talked.  Sometimes we just worked companionably together, tending the flowerbeds, and loving the beautiful riot of petunias she grew each year.  At the time, I very often resented having to sit out in the summer heat, weeding.

But now I'm grown up, and here I am, sitting out in the summer heat, weeding.  Still.  Again.  There is such a peace and joy seeing life continue on, doing something that has been familiar for so long.  And being rewarded by the beautiful flowers at the end of the process.  I can't say I will always look forward to weeding.  Maybe I will NEVER look forward to weeding.  But even in the annoyance of the chore, there is joy in the result, and in the memories.