05.08.2023 | Monday in Paschaltide

It's a beautiful Monday morning here in the Carondelet Garden.  Wasn't yesterday's weather crazy?  We woke up to a warm, sticky, humid morning and by the afternoon the temperatures had soared to the mid 90s.  As the late afternoon came and we thought a storm was beginning to brew the cool winds pushed in a gorgeous evening for porch sipping.  Welcome to Saint Louis in the springtime.

I began this year thinking about simplicity and wanting to return to a simple, ordinary life this year.  Especially after the roller coaster of the past few years.  I'm still thinking about simplicity and what that means to an old gardener like me.  For me, a simple, ordinary life is about balance.  It's about finding the things that are important to me.  I'm no Marie Kondo and I am not cleaning things out to the degree that I have only ten pieces of clothing or something like that.  My goal is to simply be the best version of myself, one that I like right now, in this moment.  I'm just trying to be a simple, ordinary old gardener in South Saint Louis enjoying the life my God has given to me in the best way I know how.  Simple.  Ordinary.  Life.  

The only thing I have to add is gratitude.  How do I say thanks for all the things I have been given?  I am the most fortunate of people.  The writer Annie Lamott once said that there only three kinds of prayer:  Help!  Thanks! and Wow!  The older I get, the more I agree with here.  Today, my prayer is Thanks!  Amen!