Earth Moving

I love to take something that isn't and turn it into something that is, especially in the yard. There is something wonderful about shoveling and raking.....creating something beautiful among the crags. Today I took my show on the road, dumping four yards of top soil strategically at my in-laws. The shape of the newly edged beds makes me smile. The carefully raked lines on the gently sloping piles of dirt beckon. All that is left is the planting. I say sometimes that gardening is easy because it gets finished. Unlike teaching and parenting, which are so very CONSTANT, when I got to the end of the dirt pile today, it was just done. But that is not really true either. There is watering, fertilizing, weed-pulling, trimming. The jobs change with the seasons but they are still there. I am a gardener of many things: my children, my yard, my family, my friendships, and more and more I realize it is the gentle pulling and patting that yields the best results.