Precious Commodity

"Rock garden" is a misnomer.  There is an area in the front yard that I call my rock garden, and even defined it with edging.  I have planted pounds of flower seeds; eaten by the birds.  I have planted tons of bulbs and tubers; eaten by the gophers.  I have planted actual plants; eaten by the deer.  There is, in fact, an outcropping of grey granite boulders, but the only things that grow in that "garden" are weeds...tall, straggly, burr-covered weeds, now dead.  I've spent the last couple of days pulling out those weeds.  Weeding, like milking, gives the mind an opportunity to go free-wheeling....

My mother taught me about the Gift of Time, but not while she was alive.  She had said, "If I have any money to leave, I want you to use it to travel."  By today's standards, my inheritance was a pittance, but I made it stretch into a year.  I quit my job and took a year's worth of early retirement; time well spent.  I did go to Europe, and I did go to visit all those friends I had told for years that, "I'll come and see you if I ever have time."  I refinished furniture and made quilts and worked on other projects I hadn't had time for.  She and I had had a couple of really rocky years in the past, and I came to appreciate the fact that we'd had time to reconcile and enjoy each other before she died.  What she really gave me was not money; it was the Gift of Time.  The Kids lead such busy lives; whenever they come up, what I appreciate more than anything is their time.  It's the hours that Joel has given me when he mows down the fields that mean as much as the work.  In an economics class, I learned about opportunity cost...if you spend your money on this, you won't have it to spend on that.  The same applies to time...there are only so many hours in a day, and if you do this, you won't have time for that.  Time is a precious commodity, and when those you love, family and friends, give you time from their lives, it is a Gift from the heart.