April 29, 2008 @ 2:02 pm | Filed under: Pure Sunshine,Soul Food

I wish I could bottle days like yesterday and save them for weeks when it has rained one too many days, or when outside temperatures are simply too hot to handle. Yesterday was about as close to perfect as weather gets around here. And – since this part of Texas has only about 4.5 days like this one – I did my best to soak it all up and tried hard to not stay holed up in my office.

Normally, by this time each year, I’ve already planted flowers and have even managed to kill off a few of the weaker, unhealthier ones. I’m sure plants in all the metroplex nurseries are breathing a huge sigh of relief, thinking that I must have forgotten planting season this year and that they are, surely, most safe.

But yesterday was the day. On Saturday I had turned the beds, tilled the soil, and added fresh mulch. Days like yesterday make me forget about my penchant for horticulture homicides. I walked the aisles of the nursery and carefully picked out the heartiest varieties that I could find, in the brightest and cheeriest colors that I could find.

Back home, with my hands and knees in the dirt, I found myself feeling such peace and a sense of well-being. I am somewhat of an eternal optimist, I guess. The flower bed in front of me was not that much unlike the flower bed of my life. Sometimes the things and people that I nurture in my life don’t do so well. I do my best to water and to nourish and to encourage and to care for them. But sometimes maybe it’s my timing, or my lack of understanding of the real needs, or maybe it’s just the climate around us – but sometimes these buds within my care begin to wilt or turn brown or fade.

What has always amazed me about plants is their ability to bounce back when focused care is placed on them. Water them at the roots, remove the weeds whose own mission is to entangle and destroy, and nourish them with vitamins. And then the real miracle – proper exposure to the sun. The sun melds all of the care and the result is beauty.

It’s not always a quick work. Sometimes it takes days of dedication and devotion and consistent care. Sometimes the results are not quite what we expected; sometimes they even exceed our expectations. Beauty in nature – there is nothing quite like it.

I think about my kids and my friends and the many people that I love and care for. I do my best to provide what they need to flourish and do well, but sometimes I get busy and I miss things. Sometimes I think I’m doing a fairly good job of caring for them, only to realize that some missing nutrients are causing them to wilt before my very eyes.

These are the times when that focused care is most important, I guess. Real heart-to-heart conversations, time spent just hanging together, listening… And then the real miracle – proper exposure to The Son. He melds all of the care that we put into the people we love and the result is beauty.

It’s not always a quick work, and I’m having to remind myself of this quite often these days. Sometimes it takes a lot of dedication, and devotion, and care that is not always the easiest to give. My hope – my prayer – is that the results that will eventually be garnered will NOT be quite what I’m expecting.

I have faith that they will be even better than what my mind can imagine.

Beauty in the people we care about – there is NOTHING better.