A Little More Sun

I have six shamrocks sitting on my dining room table, clustered together. I bought them on clearance on Saint Patrick's Day. Every day, I walk by and admire them. Several days I have looked at them and noted how they didn't quite look as healthy as the day before. So I thought they must need more water. So I gave it to them. This happened several times. Today I noticed how much healthier the one on the end closest to the window looked. The leaves were all overlapping, so it was hard to assess the health of each plant until I pulled them apart. When I did, I discovered that most of them were drowning. They were still encased in their foil wrappers and water was almost spilling over one of them. I quickly dumped out the excess water and resolved to open the blinds and let the sun shine on them. I had misjudged their needs entirely. The one healthy shamrock on the very end grew much larger than the others and even sent up blooms. It was the only one who had enough sun.

I tell you this because it relates very well to my life the past couple of days and my previous post about the spontaneous versus the planning side of ourselves. I did a great job planning my week this week. I mapped out plans to exercise, spend time with my daughter, write, etc, etc. Monday did not go as planned. I was a wreck. How am I supposed to benefit from planning with a fussy baby and a demanding four year old? I couldn't even get through my routine on the elliptical. I yelled. I was less than Christlike. (Later I repented and as we told the Easter story to our daughter at Family Night, I had some raw material to demonstrate just how the Atonement works. After singing hymns together and dyeing Easter eggs, I felt much better about the day).

Anyway, then today was a perfect day. I wrote lots while the baby slept, had an unplanned picnic with Daddy because he forgot his lunch, engaged my daughter in the fun of the Magic Eraser and wall cleaning, got a few things on my to do list done, and still had time to laugh and play and sing with my family after dinner. I learned all the verses to a children's song that has eluded me for years, thanks to my daughter's excitement about it and help.

Yesterday, I thought I needed more planning and precision to fix my day. I kept watering and watering and planning and referring to the plan. Today, I realized that I was drowning. I didn't need more water. What I needed was a little more sun. Laughter, spontaneity, and good old-fashioned fun.