The Cure

Oh what do you do in the summertime?
When the sun and my kids stay up so late?
So do I.



That didn't make any sense.



What I meant to say was - I have a problem going to sleep. I always have.

I once thought that I was a night owl. That I didn't like mornings. However the truth I have learned since having children is that I DO, in fact, love morning time. I would love it if it were possible to burn both ends of the candle (and still function with any sort of coherency). What I have learned since college and had reiterated to me over and over again throughout adulthood is that I do not like being jabbered at in the morning - when I've just woken up. BUT I DO like QUIET and beautiful mornings.

What did any of that have to do with my reason for posting? Absolutely nothing.



So today, in preparation for our upcoming vacation, I finished weeding our garden. It was fairly overgrown, being as how this is the first weeding of the season. It took some time, but Violet was asleep and I was alone. It was nice.

Yesterday morning I enlisted my two oldest to help me with this undertaking. They were each given a row that was their responsibility to clean. I had taken the hoe to the pathways between the rows. They needed to clean up the chopped off weeds and pull out the ones growing around the plants.

In true form, Hazel began, enthusiastic. That lasted all of two minutes, but she continued to trudge along. Complaining occasionally and doing a lot of staring, but not seeing, but working nonetheless and making steady progress. Singing along with me, "Tick, tock, tick, tock, goes the big clock. And to me it seems to say, 'Hurry child get your work done, then you'll have more time to play.'" :) In her typical fashion, Lilie immediately sat down and declared the job too hard and proceeded to sit on her rear drawing in the dirt - waiting for someone to come "help" (i.e. do the job for her while she pretended she was working). :) After about 15 minutes, she finally became convinced of the inevitability of the work and Lilie started to randomly pluck at the weeds. It wasn't until I whispered in her ear that if she worked quick, she might be able to beat Hazel, that she really picked it up. :)

It took more time that it needed to, but they eventually each completed their rows. There was a lot of "this is too hard" "I'm hot" "this isn't any fun" and so on, but they did it. And I became more determined than ever that this probably needed to become a regular responsibility.

As I worked my way through the rest of the garden today, on my own, I at first thought, I should go grab my iPod so I have something to listen to. But as I pulled and pulled I decided not to. It was quiet and I was working.

And I came to a conclusion.

I think many of the great ills in this world could be solved by more people bowing down on their hands and knees in a garden - pulling weeds. Nothing to listen to, nothing to watch. Just there in the dirt, by themselves --- or maybe with a sister. :)

We don't have enough quiet time in our lives. There is always something jabbering at us or something entertaining. Something to do. Somewhere to go. Turning on the radio, the iPod, the tv. Noise. Noise. Noise.

Sometimes it's just time to

BE STILL.

To think and to listen.

To just be with yourself and your own thoughts. And if you're working? All the better.

Maybe sometimes people don't like themselves because they haven't spent enough time with themselves. You know?

Maybe we repeatedly make the same mistakes because we don't spend enough time thinking quietly about the choices we want to or have made. Thinking about the things we have or need to or do NOT need to say.


Maybe we all need a little more time spent weeding our brains.



So there you have it.

I've got a cure. Or at least a start.

And I'm going to start with teaching my children.