I picked this house for the pines.
Those skyscraping trees all deeply rooted into the bed of our backyard...
they are why I signed the lease.
There are three of them there....providing shade, wind sound, bird song.
The lavender purple bathrooms...
the multicolored light switches...
the stark white kitchen flooring...
the tiny size...
the outdated decorum...
couldn't keep me from going for the evergreens.
There's something about trees in general that arouse some kind of reverence, awe, and peace in me...
but timber that is tall, and fully grown, and deeply grounded... sends me into inspiration.
Our neighborhood is mostly void of pines, actually.
Only our short spree of houses here have a few...left there, thankfully, by the developer.
Eight houses or so, lined up all in a row - have a string of these high trees dotting the properties.
And it makes such a difference.
Our back areas have shade and sun, breeze music, squirrel antics, sweet nature.
I'm so grateful.
We spend a lot of time out there... reading, playing, piecing together life... and we wouldn't if there weren't so much wood.
But as mentioned - the house has it's weak points.
Having no school room has been a challenge.
Constantly cleaning the white flooring has been irksome.
And having three homeschooled blondes all up in this small space for the full length of everyday can be.... interesting.
But all I have to do is remember the pines....remember why I picked it.
And isn't this true for more than property?
Isn't this fitting for professions?
For marriages?
For some project begun?
Going back to why we chose a certain path, a certain piece of land, a certain person...can keep us going.
It doesn't mean that tweaks and changes can't occur along the way.
Lord knows we have made a profession switch or two ;)
It doesn't mean that certain behaviors of our spouses shouldn't be addressed, or that counseling shouldn't be undertaken, or that it won't be hard.
It doesn't mean that some efforts we're forging shouldn't be reconsidered a bit.
Simply remembering why we slid rings on our fingers won't cure all marital woes.... but remembering why we said 'yes' will give us recall - to why we deemed that person worthy of the long-haul.
Right smack in the midst of some new adventure undertaken, or some fresh journey began, or some planned project rolled out - going back to the reason for it's undertaking, can boost our energies in it to completion.
It's at least worth the pondering and memory-conjuring.
I have that window open this morning...and rain is falling past pine needles out back.
And while I have to mop a smeared and spotted white floor again today...
I hear the evidence of pines here, and it gives me a content perseverance.
