There have been two great pleasures this summer.
Outside my back door there are a few potted plants and a garden box, in which things actually grow and in which there are no weeds. This seems like a grand enough accomplishment itself around here, but the great pleasure I take in these plants is the delicious smell of their leaves: tomato leaves next to basil. Cilantro. Lemon Verbena, German Chamomile, Lavender and Thyme. All warmed by the sun, as I am when I sit on my back step.
The second great pleasure of my summer is, oddly, Oliver. Oddly, because he is the most trying person in my life. This is just the way it is with some children though, I think. This morning, I woke up before he did (a work of the Lord I may have to write about later, if it continues) and was already working in the house when he came out of his room. I held him in my lap for a bit and we spoke quietly about the morning. Then he said, abruptly, looking around the room, “I smell tea.”
Which he did, because I had a half-warm quart of peppermint tea in the next room. It is not the first time he has smelled something like this– it is usually when Chad or I are eating a snack after he’s gone to bed, then he calls us back for something unrelated and says suddenly– “I smell chocolate,” or “I smell crackers.” “You eating crackers?” This makes me wonder if he’s a super smeller– you know, like there are people who are super tasters? Of course he smells it on our breath, and he is very attuned to the presence of food, so perhaps he is not so super, only normal. I love him still.
There are in reality many good things God has given me this summer, perhaps too numerous to mention each, so two is a mere sampling. There are others that might be shared in brief.
- Letters: in my mailbox from new friends and old, and from my husband, who, for our 5th anniversary bought a journal in which he writes a letter to me nearly every morning before he leaves for work.
- Watching things grow: my husband and marriage, my son, raspberries changing color, pawpaws on the tree, tomatoes on the vine, sunflowers in the sky, my love for God
- Seeing my writing room take shape upstairs. One wall is painted (the rest are waiting patiently– maybe forever), there is an comfortable futon mattress in the inviting window seat, the large table is ready for whatever “craft” Oliver feels like that day, and I’ve finally found a place in the house that gets good sirius-xm radio reception!
- The sweet days when Oliver is accident-free. More and more frequent.
And a couple of things I wouldn’t consider “good” but I’m sure God has a plan somewhere:
- Poison ivy around my neck and on my wrist and arm. I’m not wearing it like leafy jewelry– that’s just where it’s decided to settle and make me miserable.
- Grass and weeds in the garden. Not really a garden, actually: it’s more like– “Hey– someone planted a row of tomato plants in our yard!” Chad mowed it yesterday. I spent some time out there with the hoe. Still looks terrible. We’re almost to the give-up point, which generally comes later in the summer.
