Thoughts on waiting and delight

The concept of delight is something I've been thinking about lately. I'm learning that it is often a byproduct of waiting and letting things happen in their own time. When we moved into our house it seemed that there was no end to the things that we wanted to do. I wanted to do more than we had time for and over the two years that we've been here, I've learned to wait.

One area that has been a work over time has been the landscaping. Over grown weeds, bushes in need of removal, perennials desperate to be divided, trees growing in odd places, a non-functional lamp post, a ratty looking fence and the ground where the swing set used to live all begged for our time.

I could not do much the first year seeing as being pregnant with twins tends to limit physical activity for more than about 5 minutes. For the past two summers, Pish and I have slowly made progress (remember this?) spending hours tending to the needs of the yard: painting, weeding, composting, planting. The process of working slowly was, in some senses, an act of waiting.

And finally, after a couple of years of waiting and working, things are starting to take shape.

Vegetable and herb garden with the fabulous arbor that Matt's dad built for our wedding. The pathway was installed this year with all the stones that we found scattered around the yard. I'm especially partial to the creeping thyme that is filling in the spaces between the rocks.

In previous times, we would have had things in order in one summer. But that is not our life right now and we are taking to the idea of working slowly and when the time permits.

I was outside the other day with Noah and our new camera. I was playing around with the lens and seeing what I could come up with as I admired the products of our waiting and working.

And before I could do a thing about it, I found Noah on the path squishing mud through his toes. He's a big fan of mud --good boy.

Little boy bliss...