Couldn’t breathe. Snuffy nose and annoying cough tickle. So I got out of bed and started watching House Hunters International. Soon I was transported to a tropical island and could almost feel the warm breezes as I imagined laying in a gently rocking hammock.
When I awoke an hour and a half later at sunrise, I found myself remembering another hammock and the stone wall nearby.
It was 1996 and he was trucking rocks from the creek to our backyard on Palace Drive. With the help of sons Jason and Brian, my husband Chris unloaded a rock pile so large that our way to the free-standing hammock was temporarily blocked. He was “surprising” me with a curving stone wall around my perennial garden.
After hearing me talk so much about my childhood home with a rock garden of daffodils and tulips that Dad’s green thumb had grown around the tree in the side yard, he wanted to gift me with something similar.
Thing was, though, that he had never seen that yesteryear tree and the simple circle of a few rounded rocks at its base. What he envisioned was much grander than its reality. He spent a multitude of hours in his labor of love to create for me what he thought I most certainly must be desiring.
The puzzle pieces of stone took a beautiful meandering shape with his design precision and attention to detail. His multi-leveled wall curved to include a rose bush and several evergreen trees, and provided seating from which to easily tend my colorful flowers.
He even set stepping stones at strategically placed locations that my shorter-stride-than-his legs could manage. It was all such a kind gesture and brought me lots of joy for many years.
Several years later when we were going through my parents’ photo albums, imagine his surprise when I showed Chris the only remaining picture of that childhood tree and simple rock garden. “Oh. So that’s the rock garden…really?!”
He had taken a nugget of an idea and let it catapult him into creating a work of art for my enjoyment, despite the sore muscles that didn’t “have to” be. My heart continues to appreciate how much his ways of going above and beyond reveal his love for me! Thanks Mister for almost 35 years and counting…
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JOYfully jotting,
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