Sometimes there is nothing like the taste of a rhubarb stalk plucked straight from the garden to put life back into perspective. A few days ago I was in the garden enjoying the sunshine and pulling some weeds. My five-year-old daughter was digging in the dirt and helping pick lilacs and irises for the dining room table.
She nibbled fresh rhubarb and made a surprised face at the tartness, then promptly went back for more. My thoughts went back to my own childhood, eating sugar snap peas and rhubarb straight from the garden. I would ride my bike down the gravel road to my grandparents’ house where I gladly accept an invitation to spend the night for no reason at all but to enjoy their company and the ice cream my grandma would always serve up as a bed-time snack.
That’s the simplicity of summertime, and something I realized my soul needed. I often find myself yearning for cleared schedules and fewer things. I want time to get bored and to just breathe.
There will always be plenty of tasks keeping us busy, be it work, household, volunteering, family responsibilities, and more. I am reminding myself to take in the moments that only summertime can offer. We will eat s’mores for dessert and watch hummingbirds in the backyard. We will walk to the ice cream shop too many times and get really good at golf (okay, maybe not that last one, but I’m trying.)
We will accept that we can’t do it all. We will take joy in what we can do. Life is better when you stop to smell the roses, or, in some cases, stop to taste the rhubarb.
A HOUSE WITH CHARACTER 