BST's Blog

First things first...go now to Craig's Blog to further enjoy yesterday's post...love you, Stephen!

Last night I had a most enjoyable visit with Phillip Duncan. Sheryl was out on a girls' night and the kids were asleep. Phillip's wife and son are in Alabama at his parents' house so he came over and we laughed for a couple of hours. I was hoarse this morning. I'm grateful that they are back at Otter.

We are planning to go to Smyrna to the fireworks show tomorrow night. It's a great event and a lot less of a headache than the downtown Nashville show if anyone's interested. (Although, there's no Nashville Symphony)

One last thing...a garden story for you...

My dad was always big into gardening. We grew asparagus, peppers, tomatoes, onions, peaches, plums, green beans, even corn at one point. Sheryl's dad is a gardener too. It's no wonder that we both have some degree of it in our blood. However, this is really the first year that we've tried growing anything seriously. We have some huge tomato bushes that are heavy with green tomatoes...I can't wait!! (The first one to ripen was promptly eaten by our dog Bear...a real test in my adoration of her.)

As I planted annuals this year, I kept trying to remember where I had planted bulbs last year. I finally gave up. Since I tend to have a real green thumb at growing weeds, I also found it hard to discern what was weed and what was flower. This one weed looking thing came up and I could not for the life of me decide what it was. I was convinced it was a weed...but decided to wait just in case. It grew, and grew and had a strange stalk. It kept looking like it was going to flower and then it would just turn into another leaf or more stalk. Weird. I just decided to wait and see. Finally, 2 weeks ago a thing resembling a bud of a flower appeared. Here's what the "weed" looked like early this morning...



Sorry if this seems like a cheesy spiritual analogy, but it struck me that sometimes life is like my garden. Sometimes we wait and wait and wait for fruit from a bush we know will bear it and it gets squashed or eaten before it can be used. And...other times people who seem to be "weeds" or rough on the outside end up bringing the most beauty to our garden. It's a good lesson for me to remember.