Calla and Molly, age 7 and 3 respectively. At our cottage of days gone by in Rocklane. Every July we had these "surprise" lilies come up along the edge of our property line. One neighbor called them surprise lilies. One called them June lilies. Um, hello, its July...?? I called them country elegance. I look forward to having a patch of them at this house, too, someday. A border of hydrangeas to replace the little pebble garden around the screened in porch and a line of lilac bushes with an arbor and I could almost feel like I was there.
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There is so much country girl in me. I feel her emerging every time I sit in the neatly groomed rows of my favorite lavender farm in Mooresville. It has always been my longingest dream to own my own lavender farm and high tea house. For years now, I've pictured a tiny Italian villa home sitting on about 20 acres with a small vineyard and an open airy cafe that resembled an over grown tool shed. I would wear white cotton sundresses and go barefoot as I greeted guest and loved them. Simplicity. The Country. Lavender. Tea.
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Today I had a hard time loving my kids...Is that wrong to say? Rare is it that people have their dreams come true. Life is not a dream. Life is hard. I pray for days of simplicity...not that I wouldn't have to work hard through them...just days in which siblings loved each other...where we aren't caught up in the hustle and bustle of the soccer mom go, go, go, where much is accomplished, but appreciated. Days that you know you gave unselfishly to world and it was better for it. Not days where the world sucked it right out of you, put you on a shelf, and said, "I'll come back for you tomorrow." Days where the surprise lilies come out of the ground and bloom it seems all within 72 hours. Days where you rush over to them in your pajamas and bare feet and scoop them up and bury your nose in them. Oh, for the wonderful surprises the air may bring tomorrow morn'
Goodnight
smooch
8 comments:
A process by which green plants and other organisms turn carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen, using light energy trapped by chlorophyll.
smooch
Simply and beautifully said, Miss Stickers.
Thank you for your honesty and for sharing your dreams. I can't help but think of you anytime I think of that lavender farm--or even when I see the word lavender written on products at the grocery store.
I, too, feel like I've been set upon that shelf to have more sucked out of me lately. Paul and I regularly have the conversation of how to make our lives more simple.
Would it really be so wrong to move far away to a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no conatact to the outside world at all?
Probably. Although I don't think the desire is so wrong. I think God understands that longing and appreciates it--and honors our efforts to stay where we are and keep on keeping on.
You're doing a good job, Lady.
Keep on keeping on today.
Love you!
Jodi
wv: redrebod (Reminds me of the time you wore that beautiful red hat and had the bright red lipstick. So pretty!)
Jodi,
I love you too. Where is that girl with the red hat and lipstick? I want to be her so badly, today. Do people remember that girl? That girl who could just whip up creativity out of the tips of her fingers and had the time to make people feel loved with her hospitality? I was made for southern aristocratic living, not this. I feel like I'm just a shell of who I was. I'm not complaining. I'm very very blessed and those around me know it. I just feel like a daisy who has been plopped in a rose garden. It would just be nice if people knew that girl was still in me somewhere, hiding from necessity, waiting for someone to buy her a new hat - lol. I feel old today. 33 was never intented to be this old. I guess I'll just have to be younger when I'm forty.
smooch
Jodi,
Do you have a picture of me in that hat?
smooch
I LOVE these pictures of Calla and Molly. Isn't this what they looked like when I first met them?
Hannah
Hannah,
We actually met you the year before these pictures were taken, six years ago. Can you believe it?
smooch
I want to go live in the middle of a zoo in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we can all have a compound in the middle of no where.
Where is no where?
Okay, I admit that the surprise gladiola or iris is simply amazing; especially, when these are flowers that come out at the darkest of times; but, I have tried living in nowhere, and it's really not all that it's cracked up to be. Honestly, the greatest joy is being with those you love, even if they are your greatest trial at the moment. ;) So, I wish for you your dream, and for me, mine...the simple beauty of a lonely little flower trying to survive on a campus filled with thousands of unaware passersby. The amazing audacity of that flower to take its place in the world. When you do get your place, be sure to save a room for us. ;)
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