Dirt under your nails

There's a satisfaction to be found in a long, freshly planted row of tomatoes that I'm not sure can be experienced anywhere else. I do know that we ended an evening this week just that way, over in the new garden at the new house site. Dad had just finished showing me where the living room is going to be, and we were discussing which kind of stone to use for the fireplace (river rock, of course), and what style we should use when we lay it out. He showed me a handful of perfect arrowheads they found where the barn is going to be. I'm so excited--so ready to have a home again. This new place is lovely of an evening.

So I had plans skipping through my thoughts, and dirt under my fingernails, and I sat back and watched a beautiful sunset as Thomas, our huge loveable barn cat, rubbed against my knee. His deep rumble of a purr is the most soothing sound I know. I watched my mom weeding the asparagus (50 feet of it!) across the way, and dad and the little brother putting up a fence for the half-runner green beans, and I thought, God, this is it. I am, in this moment, perfectly content with my life, who I am, what I do, what I am becoming and where I am going with it. I have missed this feeling, this joy. So if there was ever a time for me to keel over and die, this would be that time, because it is impossible for this moment to get any better, and if I had to go I'd like to do it planting tomatoes.

Obviously, I'm still here (typing from Valley Vista summer camp where I have hacked into their internet after working over an unsuspecting young man who had an idea what the password might be). So I figure that there must be even more amazingness coming up, things I don't even know to dream about, because I live and breath; and also because I feel God's excitement when we discuss my future. If he sees that much to look forward to, why shouldn't I be just as thrilled? Future, this one's for you--may you be filled with freshly planted tomatoes.

(H'okey, I know this one is a bit silly. I was just happy. Still am.)