On The Porch

Yesterday, I had lunch on the porch for the first time this year - on June 1st - so late. The weather has been the weirdest. This morning, it's cold again. The weekend is supposed to be blazing hot. It made me think about the passage of time.




We have four distinct seasons in Canada. Spring is very windy in my area. We bought huge planters for the porch as a windbreak to stop the furniture from blowing off. Fall is usually absolutely gorgeous and the easiest time of year to be outside. In winter, it's way too cold to curl up on the porch with a good book and in summer, it can be too hot except for in the mornings when the sun is on the other side of the house. It sounds lazy but we have three sitting areas in our yard - the front porch, the upper back deck, and the lower back deck. Three ways to avoid the heat.




It seems like the seasons are flipping by faster and faster. While looking for the porch pictures above, I came across this image of my front garden taken a few years ago. You can see the original five lily plants that I mentioned yesterday. AND THEN...




... there's the garden as it was last night. Time and growth are evident. More ideas swirl for adding and splitting and moving. More time will show more growth - something that would be true in all our lives in many areas.




It's easy to flip between extremes - that time is standing still or that it's moving by faster and faster. On any given day, both feelings could be true and yet reality is somewhere in the middle. Sometimes, I feel bogged down by how much there is to do and I think we'll never get finished and then I see a picture like the one below of our back yard three years ago.




I look at where it is today and start to mentally list all the things we've done to improve it - removing dead trees, breaking up yucky concrete and using it to build a wall to extend the yard, a new patio, grass, gardens, a hedge, furniture. I can almost overlook the fact that the under deck isn't finished and that the stucco and swing need painting. Almost. It niggles. I force myself to focus on accomplishments. To celebrate growth and change and learning. It would be easy to get dragged down by the negative.




Kyle needed twelve to fourteen photographs for a media presentation at grad. Time flies very VERY fast when flipping through photo albums. I noticed how young my children were at times when I thought they were older. I noticed how ill my husband has looked for a long time and how exhausted I look. There are not many good pictures of me. I'm not photogenic and ongoing tired does not help. The pictures brought some struggles into perspective. I also noticed the fun times and the smiles and how my children grew and their accomplishments and the evidence of wisdom and learning. It was good to reflect.

June is a month of lasts. After twenty-one years of school, this will be our last graduation ceremony, our last last day of school, our last music lesson, and so on. I find myself excited more than anything. I'm on the brink of a major change. I'm thinking about new firsts.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - growth