Be As A Little Child

Yesterday was a spring cleaning day. Only here in Phoenix that means something a bit different. There wasn't messes left from months of snow to clean up, no no, there was dead weeds to clear out and rocks to rake. And, most importantly, there is the pool to get ready! It's pool time! And I had put off preparing the pool for swimming. Yesterday, I got it ready. And at the end of the day, it was really nice to sit there, with the feet in the water and admire it's beauty.

No, it was too late by the time all was ready to actually go swimming. But that didn't stop my 8 yr old, Deborah from asking if they could go. Well, she intended to ask me anyway. I was sitting on the diving board admiring my hard work, daddy was sitting beside me and 2 yr old Brandon was beside daddy, his own little feet dangling in the water. Deborah came up to me to ask, and before she could get the words out of her mouth, I pushed her in. Yes, that's right, I pushed her into the water, fully clothed. And it was funny. Now, see, I couldn't have done that with 12 yr old, Heather, no no...that would have been very bad. But Deborah is a good sport about such things and after a stressed moment of losing her shoe, she laughed and laughed. I told her we weren't going swimming but that she should go inside and shower.

My wise husband said at this point I should be expecting the other two older children shortly. I said nooo...but he was right. First, Dale, 10 yr old, wander slowly out by the pool. I had stood and was preparing to go inside, but had to push him in first. Laughing, he returned inside. And just as I had convinced Brandon to come inside with me, Heather came tentatively tip toe-ing out by the pool. I said 'ok, I'll push you in'. She said, 'can I jump?' I said, 'no what's the fun in that.' Still she didn't let me get much leverage and dove prettily into the pool. She still made a significant splash tho upon coming up from the water.

So, picture this if you will, Heather splashing around in the pool, fully clothed. Brandon, suddenly has become very concerned. "OH NO!" He keeps shouting. Daddy and I just laugh and laugh as Heather takes her splashing good time to leave the pool. Reassuring Brandon has no effect and he runs over, grabs the aluminum pole with the strainer attachment and holds it out to Heather, to rescue her. My heart leapt into my throat. Wow! How did he know to do that?? Was he the only child paying attention last summer on saftey day at swim lessons? Naw, he was only one at the time, that couldn't be it. He instinctively knew how to save his much larger, flailing sister. Heather grabbed the end and sweetly played along as she took the steps out of the pool. She gave Brandon a hug and thanked him. He was overjoyed to see her saftely back on the pool deck and we all went inside.

Daily, I see Brandon and Robert, 3 yr old, interact in similar ways. They are deeply concerned for each other's well being and happiness. They will give hugs to comfort, kisses to heal and ask 'Happy?' to be sure all is right in their little worlds again. They are such shining little examples of how we should all care and love each other. Wouldn't it be something sweet and special if the leaders of the world could hug, give healing kisses, and ask each other if all is happy. We should all be more like little children. (Except for the fit throwing and screaming NO!)

On another happy note, my new vanity liscense plate arrived this week. Can you guess what it says??

Happy Guessing!

Bougainvillea

Has it really been a full week since I last posted? Wow..the week has flown by. So much for me determination to write more frequently.

This past weekend I did yard work. This winter we've had many nights below freezing. This is an unusual thing for Phoenix. A couple times of reaching freezing happens, but weeks of hard freezes have killed many trees and bushes throughout the city. I have a bougainvillea in my front yard. Here is a picture of one for those unfamiliar:




It is a pretty bush that we let grow really big through the summer and fall. It also has huge thorns. I just googled bougainvillea thorn to see if I could get a picture of one for you. The first one hundred hits or so dealt with people in different medical forums asking for advice after getting poked, pricked or embedded with a thorn from this delightful plant. This just goes to show me that my frustrations and dealing with this plant are not unique to me. Heh. All of the branches on my 12 foot high bush died with the freeze and the leaves turned black. Yuck! So, now that it seems to have warmed up, I went and chopped it all off. I have all the scratches to prove it.

I had misplaced my gloves and so started the project barehanded. Not such a smart thing to do. About halfway through, I took a break, looked at the welts appearing on my hands and ankles and then drove to Home Depot to get new gloves. Now that bush is just a stump. The thing is that the freeze killed the branches, but it didn't kill the plant. This is not the first time I have taken the bush down to a stump. It will be back and next winter I will share again how much I despise trimming the bougainvillea.

I could remove the plant. My husband and I have discussed removing it many times, but then we would need to put something in its place. Our house is white and the deep greens and reds of the bush look very pretty against it. So, until we decide on what to replace it with, I will continue my annual hatefest with it.

I do trim it mid summer but I wait to hack it way back until Jan-Feb.

I look at myself sometimes in comparison with this bush. See, I have my own thorns. These thorns sometimes make it pretty tough for people to stay close to me. I can appreciate not wanting to get scratched. But this isn't me all of the time. Kinda like my stump out there right now. It doesn't look like it could hurt anything.

I go through times of dropping contact with people in my life. It is never intentional. It never is that I don't want to see them. I just take a break as I work through things in my own little world. I tend to avoid taking care of things until the absolutely demand my attention. Like that bush. I was going to write here that I have lost friends because of this, but that isn't true. It is more that I have drifted apart from some good, amazing people in my life. I have a few very good friends and many others who fit in this drifted away department. Where when we see each other it is friendly and we are glad to see each other, but too much time has passed to quickly regain the deeper connection we once shared.

This is all probably much more common than I give myself credit for. I've really only know a couple of people who have that natural social friend ability. I think it is something we are either wired for or not. I am very thankful to have those close people in my life who understand that when I seem to drift away we really can pick up where we left off.

I'm not sure if this all flows right, or if my connection between friendships and a plant that is overly annoying to trim is fair. The two have simply been on my mind, which generally leads to odd comparisons.