The Eye of the Beholder

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
-- Franz Kafka, Czech writer (1883-1924)

My parents called me yesterday afternoon just to chat for a minute, and Mom asked whether anything exciting was going on. I didn't tell her the raccoon story (they read the blog). When I said no, she asked whether anything not exciting was going on.

It's funny how some days you're glad when nothing exciting happens. I think we've become accustomed to living on a juked-up schedule in our day to day lives - always running here and there and not taking the time to sit back and enjoy the fact that we are ... well, alive.

Last Thursday on the WGH's day off - when I was working the schedule from hell - he and the kids did some major work in the front flower bed. Weeded, culled, tilled and mulched. The Boy - with his brand new license - drove (solo) up to our local mill and brought back the second truckload of mulch, and they finished sprucing up the landscaping in front of our house. You wouldn't believe the difference. My roses are blooming again and are absolutely gorgeous, and the rest of the patch no longer looks like Audrey II's bedroom in Little Shop of Horrors.

In addition to being a terrible housekeeper, I don't do well with plants. Or yard work, for that matter. But I'll do it when I have to. What I appreciate is the fact that as much as the kids grumbled about having to do it, they did it, they did it well, and their hard work paid off. I hope they learned a valuable lesson from it, though we probably won't see the benefits of that lesson for years to come.

I have been staying up way, way past my bedtime the past couple of weeks, working hard on the manuscript and a few other various and sundry projects. Reading, too. This morning I actually slept until after eight, and only woke up when Sebastian decided he had to hack up a hairball (he sleeps on my pillow). I'll spare you the gory details, but I did manage to avert a disaster.

So I'm back after it again - chained to the chair and pecking away at my deadline, feeling this story really start to come alive, and trying to appreciate the beauty of the work created.

Read a book. It's good for you!

=) JB

Word of the Day: affray \uh-FRAY\ (noun) - A tumultuous assault or quarrel; a brawl. [source: ArcaMax Vocabulary 06.29.07]