Beauty Restored

Well, it is time for me to go out and attack the yard again!  I have lived in this current home for 6 years and the yard was very pretty when I moved in, but for the first two years after moving here, I planted hundreds of plants and spent countless hours grooming the backyard.

This is a picture of the yard in May of 2005 and it is my goal to get the yard not only this pretty but better this year.  Last year I was so busy and very neglectful of the yard and I am paying for it this year.

As I was out working in the yard I began to think, again, that the gardens are like our lives and tending to the things that overtake us cannot be neglected. 

Winter is a natural pruning cycle and the green growth withers and dies and falls to the ground.  In the spring the new growth springs up and pushes aside the old brown stubble.  And so it goes year after year.

One of the most tiresome parts of the gardening experience is the initial cleanup of the old dead growth.  It would be nice to just take a rake and make quick work of it all, but there are tiny sprouts of new growth that are very tender just below the dead stuff.  So I go out and gently by hand rake up the old dead growth and toss it in the can.  Reminds me of God's gentleness towards our lives and rather than taking a sharp rake to the dead stuff in our lives, he gently uses His hands and sweeps away the old to allow the new to flourish.

I know that it is probably my imagination, but it appears to me that the new little sprouts feel so refreshed getting exposed to the air and sunshine that they seem to just reach even higher to the sky.

When cleaning sometimes I think that I can leave piles of old dead leaves and such in certain places where no one will ever see them.  But I have learned that the dirt needs to be exposed.  Leaving old leaves can create mold and decay and the plants will die.

Yet another lesson about life I've learned.  How many times have we said to ourselves that it is ok if this or that is still in my life, after all no one will ever see or will ever know.  But the truth of the matter is that if left, it will cause decay and rot in our lives.  It really isn't about what impression we leave on others, but it is about our own lives being full of life and void of decay!

Yes it takes time to clean things up and oh yes how my back ached, but now when I walk out into the backyard and it is clean the feeling that washes over me is refreshing and so worth the work. Enjoy these older pictures of my yard. I'll post newer ones soon and you can see if I was able to tame the overgrowth and restore it to its former beauty or beyond!!

Nancy Jackson, daydreamer extraordinaire

DAY JOB LINKS...
Dreams Do Come True
Dragonfly In Amber Designs