Lately, I've been reading many blogs about loneliness, single hood, femininity, prayer, virtue, and sometimes posts that touch on every one of those topics. I've also been doing a lot of "blog-hopping." First it was this courageous Tampa Bay Times writer, which led me to this classy & genuine married couple...and when I caught up on their posts, I made my way over to the new & improved YCW, which was my forgotten love.
That being said, there's some pretty great stuff out there. I mean real, passionate writers who have a clear understanding of the chaotic hearts & minds of us single twenty-somethings.
But you know these wise words are really great when what you read helps you in the real world. In the education arena, we call this practicality.
I learned something practical today. As I was weeding the garden, of all things!
To start with, this was something I hadn't done - with my own zeal - since I was in the convent. My original mission was to pull out the growing beans from our frazzled, slightly-disheveled garden. That was it. I wanted to have beans in the near future and this was the quickest & tastiest way I saw to reach that goal.
But as I was pulling the fresh beans, I remembered my mom sharing her angst about how our onions never grow as big as Grandma's. Heck, sometimes they don't even grow at all! I recalled the disappointment in her voice as she talked about giving up on these lil' guys.
So I took a look at the onions. I tried to pull some out and noticed: 1) the ground was dryer than a piece of sandpaper and 2) they joined the rest of the plants in a struggle against the weeds.
You can imagine my joy in having solved the onion mystery! It is this joy that prompted me to run into the garage and search frantically for a pair of gardening gloves, beginning my contemplation of the act of planting seeds among weeds, and the act of weeding itself.
I'd love to be able to tell you that I learned something deeply philosophical today.
But what I really learned is that it is entirely capable to stumble upon activities that will keep my mind off of the disappointment that is sometimes lived through as a young single woman striving for holiness. The disappointment comes and it goes. Sometimes it brings friends such as jealousy, lust, stress, etc.
As always, it is our response to these feelings that matter most.
Lord, open my eyes to see Your hand in even the muckiest parts of my life.
