There is no snow on the forecast for the coming month and shortly after that we'll be in the thick of summer. We should be in the clear to break out the short sleeves and get to work (and play!) outside. It's time for things to start popping up and coming to life now, and the garden knows it. The tulips that are left are fighting for their last chance to shine before pouting in dormancy for the year, cheated out of their show in April. The lilacs look like they might just bloom after all and fill our sense of smell with the pleasant childhood memories of grandma's house. Peas, kale, lettuce, chamomile and hops are all poking through the soil and will leaf out in no time with the bright sunshine calling them upward. I really think we made it through the weekly onslaught of frozen moisture until next winter. Whew!
There were little glimmers of activity sprouting through the dense cover of the adoption process this week as well. All of the families working with our agency got an urgent message to let the agency know if we were interested in being a foster family for a newborn baby. We don't know much about that baby, but we know that it wasn't meant to be our story.
We also learned that the agency has plans to show prospective birth mother(s?) our book, along with all the other waiting families, at some point soon. We don't know when someone will be looking through the personal details of our lives. We don't know who that person will be or who they are hoping to find to parent their baby. We don't even know if they are planning to create an adoption plan for their baby just yet. Remember though, if no one is looking at profile books through our agency, then it's unlikely anyone is planning to call us. A little is worth a lot sometimes. We'll call them "baby" steps.
These little signs of life along our journey are important for the active mind, waiting. Although it is often used as a synonym for "obsess", I was reminded of another one of the definitions of the word "dwell" this week: to exist in a given place or state. In that way, being told that I'm dwelling on this process isn't such a bad thing. I am in fact existing in The Wait. The trigger to devote some thought to this was a quote from one of my dads:
"To dwell is to garden."
~ Martin Heidegger
With that in mind, it stands to reason that I've used gardening in springtime as such a prominent metaphor for my dwelling in this state of continual waiting. And, I resemble that remark. If my dwelling is the process of creating some beautiful dream I've been sowing for the past few years, then I can't wait to harvest the fruits of our labor. I happily accept that my thoughts and dreams about our family to be are merely preparing the bed, setting out seeds and giving love and care under the bright sun. And speaking of the literal garden...
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
~ Margaret Atwood
Let that be your inspiration to get outside and create something lovely this weekend!
