Color And Beauty And Life

I can hardly believe it, but it’s been five years since we moved to Fayetteville! And at this point, Megan and I have officially lived in Arkansas for the majority of our marriage. What!?

Most of the past 1800-something days have looked about as dreamy as our front yard - the grass was mowed and the plant life was lovely, but given more than 10 seconds of viewing pleasure, and you'd've found an unsettling reality: the cobwebs never left the front porch, and the weeds were taking over.. even our mature trees were dying! 

If only driving by our house, though, you might miss it. It’s a cute house, after all :). Good size lot. Comfortable. Decorated on the inside. 

But living there for years amidst the untamed overgrowth - not to mention the intrusions of spiders, roaches, and mice - you’d go crazy!

Interesting how changing our relationship with something also changes how we experience it.

Similarly, if merely scrolling through our life over the past five years, it’s easy to be drawn to the church, the kids, and the businesses, all established and strong. And they are. But living through it was a much different experience, and long story short, we have had a loooottt of weeding to do after years of neglecting our garden. 

And I mean that in the sense of our hearts. 

But also very literally, our garden. So many weeds. 

That’s where my hero wife, Megan, came in. 

She took a little corner of that garden and made it completely new: Weeded. Gutted. Planted. Mulched. Nourished. Cherished. 

“Going for something whimsical,” she says. 

Before long, the transformative work that she started in a small corner had taken over, inch by inch, the entirety of our garden. 

And the best, most heroic thing about it? She didn’t do it by herself, but invited our boys to do it with her. Their favorite part was shoveling up the old dirt and looking for worms :) 

Now here’s where it gets magical: somehow, the garden planted a seed in them. 

They can’t go on a single walk anymore without stopping to smell flowers, pick up a leaf for their nature collection, or appreciate the beauty of a willow tree. 

“Creativity begets creativity,” Megan tells me. 

I agree. Something wonderful emerges when we engage our minds and hearts into meaning, discovery, work, and play. 

It’s more than an item checked off of a to-do list; it’s a real momentum that gains steam, a grounded way of being that takes root. 

Megan sums it up like this: “Color and Beauty and Life” 

And I know that vision of hers will serve her so well as she homeschools our boys this year :)

I am incredibly proud of her brave, pioneering heart! She's left her job as a CPA to pursue a passion of hers that she's been cultivating for well over a year!

Beckham was 5 weeks old when we moved here… now, he’s going into Kindergarten!

And speaking of gardens..  I lied to you earlier. Their favorite part wasn’t the worms - it was being with Mom :)