Beauty

I'm sitting at my desk, doing a little work while R. naps and A. is taking a shower. I love my office - it's tiny, but it's one of the sunniest rooms in our house, and my desk is right under the window facing our backyard. As I'm typing, I'm watching two cardinals swoop back and forth across the yard. They must be fighting over a nesting spot. A little yellow butterfly is fluttering around, too, although I'm not sure why because there is nothing for it in our yard. I'm hoping to have time this year to do some major planting of perennials, and R. wants to help. We'll see...

This morning, because it was grey and damp outside, we walked down to the indoor gym around the corner from our house. R. had fun, but I think he was the oldest child there, so we had to keep warning him to be careful of the little ones, which gets annoying after awhile. While we were there, the sun came out - yay! We had a nice walk home. R. picked some dandelions and spent time walking on ledges/borders and looking for cool rocks. When we got home, he and I hung out in the backyard, checking the garden for signs of life (just my garlic chives have come up so far; the clematis I planted while my mom was here was decimated by the squirrels - argh), then playing in the sandbox.

I sat there with R. and just smelled the air. I love the smell of spring - that earthy, moist, fragrance of new life and things growing. I feel like I connect with that smell in some very deep way. It's invigorating.

So, thank you, Lord, for that smell of spring and for this beautiful earth. Forgive us for what we've done to it! Thank you being so detail-oriented. :-) All the colors, smells, textures that make up this world and everything in it.

(And, thank you for Claritin so that I can sniff the air without having a sneezing fit.) :-)

Amen!