A garden exchange

An interesting exchange between husband and wife this morning- One of those that, I'm certain, would leave all men shaking their heads, and commiserating with their pals, how "you just can't understand women!' So- let me explain.

 As previously stated in another blog post, I've been spending 20-30 min. in the garden each morning weeding. And, it must be said, that my husband has been thanking me profusely for my efforts. But this morning, before leaving for work, Bruce said, "Will you go out and finish weeding the parsnips?" and INSTANTLY, no matter that I'd planned on doing just that.... INSTANTLY, I didn't want to.

 Bruce was bewildered when I sniped irritably at him. He left for the office, and that was the end of the argument. No big deal.  But I can never leave anything I don't understand alone. So, while weeding the parsnips, I pondered just exactly what had happened.

The deal is.... I was weeding the garden because I WANTED to.  

At first, I wanted to surprise Bruce. Soon, I was finding that I enjoyed the peaceful routine. I WANT our vegetables to grow, and I was taking pride in how nice the garden looked.

The bottom line was that my weeding was a GIFT.  As soon as Bruce made a demand (and I get that it wasn't much of a DEMAND... he was asking, though, with confidence that his wishes would be met), it was no longer a gift that I was giving him. It was simply a job that was required of me- and I felt like a little kid who had shirked her chores, and needed to get them done in a timely fashion. I have to interject here, that this was in NO WAY what Bruce intended...

nevertheless...

Well- the parsnips are weeded, and the garden looks great! The plants are flourishing. The corn is tall (for where we live). We have green tomatoes, and tiny peppers, and the beginnings of flowers on the squash. The peach tree is COVERED with peaches!

And life is back to  normal in the Sterling household. I just found it interesting...