Tuesday, June 22, 2010

HOME SWEET HOME

I have trouble sleeping in a strange bed. In fact, I'm surprised my husband can sleep at all while we are away from home. I am up and down all night long. Reading, watching TV, walking around the room. One thing I've learned, that sometimes helps is thinking about pleasant things. Once in a while, that will help me drift off to sleep. On several different nights I tried thinking about flowers. I love flowers. My husband often tells our friends, "if there's a flat surface, she thinks it requires a plant or flowers." I say what's wrong with that? Before we left for sixteen days I planted several new flowers in flower beds outside. We have an automatic sprinkler system, so I wasn't worried about the extra water they would need while I was gone. One of the things I didn't count on were all the weeds. We got home late in the afternoon, it was still light enough to walk through the yard admiring my flowers. I stopped short in my tracks. Where are all the flowers? That's right. In some cases they were hidden by all the weeds. It was that very moment that made me think about my own life. When I'm not home to weed the flower beds, they are over run with nasty looking weeds. Isn't that the way sin is too? If you aren't constantly reading the Bible, praying and meditating "weeds" will grow in your life. I heard my husbands voice. "What are you doing? I've been looking all over for you." I was bent over one of the beds pulling weeds as fast as I could. "Just give me a minute, and I'll have these flower beds all shaped up." Wouldn't it be great, if that's all we had to do? Pull a few "weeds" and everything would be "all shaped up." I'm home now, sleeping in my own bed. My husband seems to be sleeping better too. Probably because he's not up in the middle of the night trying to figure out what I'm doing. Ahhh, home, sweet home!

8 comments:

kathy taylor said...

I know about those nights of up and down and trying one pillow after another. Home is a wonderful place, and it gives us a chance to take a good look at the weeds. Great topic. I love your analogy!

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Thanks Kathy! I forgot about the pillows. One night we stayed in a motel that had "postage stamp" pillows!

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

Didn't you ever hear that all weeds are plants at heart? LOL. Glad you're home safe and sound, Katt. Sleep tight tonight.

Karen Lange said...

Home is nice, isn't it? As much as I enjoy going away, I prefer home best:)

Carol J. Garvin said...

It's nice to find you back here. Your blog's new look is lovely, too.

While I'm away I always enjoy the visits, sightseeing, travelling, etc., but nothing beats getting back home again. It's discouraging to discover the invasive weeds, but a few sessions on our knees gets the job done... in more places than the garden. ;)

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Joy, when I was a little girl I loved to help my Grandmother "weed" her flower beds. Not being very "flower savvy" as a child, of course I left the weeds and pulled many of the flowers. I can still hear her beautiful laughter!

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Karen,
Me too! But don't you think you have to leave every once in a while to really appreciate home? "There's no place like home, there's no place like home! :D

Kathryn Neff Perry, PhD, MA, LMHC said...

Carol, great reminder! Yes I need to spend more time on my knees and not just in the garden! We had a wonderful time, saw several friends. Spent precious time with our son, daughter-in-law and our two granddaughters. It's always hard to leave them, they are so far away. But it's also great to be home.