Michael has a garden.

Tomatoes, peppers and this season…strawberries.  Four different kinds.

He has vines planted on one wall of the side yard that has become his “space” and we just bought a great table for potted plants and tools.

It’s starting to come together.

Maggie is highly invested in the garden and has been looking at magazines for quite a while.  She’s excited about the strawberries.

They’re out there the other day and Maggie tells Michael she’s a bit disappointed because their garden doesn’t look like the ones in the magazines.  “It’s not as finished and pretty as these ones, ” she says.  “What are we missing?”

“Time, things take time to become beautiful.  You can’t just run out buy a bunch of things and think you’ll have a space that is warm and what you see in the magazine,”  he responds.  Damn him, he really always knows what to say.

Maggie looks at him, as only she can, and says, “Oooooh…well how long?”

Sitting still and learning to wait.  I’m not so good at either one of those things, but I’m learning.  When I was younger I used to say that I could live in a hotel.  I loved to move and in my mind people that stood still, stayed in the same place forever, were boring…trapped.

It’s hard when you’re young to understand that things take ten times longer than you think they will.  When you look in a magazine at a home that’s been around for 40-50 years you’re not just seeing a great house, you’re looking at time, investment and usually love and attention.

Buying things is easy, fun, but sticking with something, watching it age, taking care of it and allowing it to change, grow and take root…really beautiful.

Maggie will learn that from her father.  She will see in a few years that they in fact have the magazine and hopefully she’ll carry that into the world with her.

For now, she wants the damn strawberries to hurry up.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Wait for the Sunrise.

age children Dads life patience thoughts Uncategorized age children family life thoughts