Roads to Joy

We’ve been waiting weeks for the giant poppies in our new-to-us front garden to bloom. These plants are just about taller than we are! Three have opened all at once, in the past couple of days, and it’s been worth the wait. There’s lots more on the way, too.

Over the past fortnight, life has been full of waiting: waiting for solicitors to finalise the sale of Spring Cottage; waiting for the next steps in our kitchen renovation project; waiting for our venture down south to pick up the third floor-standing Dryad loom, in pieces. And that’s just us; all around us projects are waiting for the next thing to happen.

But we did spend a hugely enjoyable weekend helping to clear and clean the old Town Hall here in New Galloway, facilitating another of the inexorable components that are required before the place is ready to receive the community again. On our way back with the pieces of loom, we resolved a workshop/storage issue, to our great satisfaction. Road trips are good for that kind of reflection. The rest of the month looks like being full of visiting friends, so we can share enthusiasms and anticipations. Life, it seems, is blooming all around us.

If we don’t bother to look at the blossoms, but instead march steadfastly along in pursuit of this or that project, grumbling at this or that enforced wait, we risk missing the joy, don’t we?

Maybe, if the sunshine continues as predicted today, we’ll venture out and see what renovations on the marshland dyke path have been about, or if it’s too hot and sunny maybe we’ll pop next door for another amble through the cool woods. It’s promising to be a restful day, and we must promise ourselves to pause and enjoy the moment.