Pond Update

I mentioned a while ago that I was working on my pond. Things have been moving rather slowly due to studying for my national certification test and vacation and the million other things that have taken my time. (Not to mention pure laziness). But with the help of my friend J, I now have my pond up and running. It is a lot smaller than my last one, that was on purpose. I figured a smaller pond would be easier to keep clean. This one is about 700 gallons and my last one was 1200. So hopefully I will have less work to maintain it.

Another very important reason it is smaller; I am older and the digging was harder. Okay so maybe in the six years between digging ponds I didn’t age that much, but I am way out of shape today and boy do I ever feel it. But it was worth it. I now have my very own therapy garden in my own yard with the added bonus of fish swimming around.

And it is a therapy garden to me. I love to watch the water falls and the fish darting to and fro. And to sit there and close my eyes and hear the water slowly trickle down the falls to rejoin the pond in happy abandonment. To listen to the dragon flies swarming around to get their nightly feast of gnats and other small insects. To feel the tension and stress just drain from my body. That is why I work so hard to have a pond.

But now that the pond is up and running, the real work starts. The landscaping and the planting and, yes, moving more dirt. But that has its benefits as well. There is something therapeutic about having my body engaged in physical labor that requires little thought. My mind can drift and flow from the spiritually deep to the mundane. In 5 five minutes I can go from thinking about the wonder at God’s Earth to wondering why every rock I have found was with the tip of my shovel.

The last few days I have been digging to make a retaining wall and flower bed. I have moved a lot of dirt, both in the yard and in my head. The hours of working with my hands have also been working on my heart. And while I do not claim understanding, I do claim the promise that God is Love and all can be made good through him. So I am moving forward.

I am moving past the words and giggles and the signs. To the email person, today I was able to say that prayer for you but I did delete your email. I don’t need that homophobic negative energy around me. And besides, my God is the God of Love, not hate. I am sorry that your relationship with God is based in fear and judgement and I do sincerely pray that someday you can have a personal relationship built on Love and Grace.

To all my Internet buddies, Thank you so very much for your kind words and prayers. Things are looking up and now I am off to another therapy session of digging. There is satisfaction in seeing progress in a hard job and planning for the end results.