Fast Day 28--Weeding the Garden

Q has been very surly the last couple of days.  Getting angry at the drop of a hat.  Telling me that he is mad because "everyone is always getting mad at him."  I smiled, ruffled his hair and told him that he is at a difficult age.  He is starting to become very aware of the world around him and his place in it.  He is starting to see the unfairness, and really feel the responsibility that comes with growing up.

I can't take the hard part of growing up away from him, but I can try to give him a place to go when the negative voices get too overwhelming.  I need to return to journaling more, so I think I am going to make that something that the boys and I do together.  We will take the time out of the evening, perhaps before bedtime and we will make a space for journaling their day.  B might have no real interest, but Q could perhaps be helped by it.

I have found, that if I am feeling angsty, that it is in my best interested to do something physical.  So, I took Q out to the space that I am slowly going to turn into a meditation space, and had him help me start digging roots out of the muddy ground.  He talked for a little while, telling me that he has just had the worst day ever.  But then it got quiet and he started really helping and getting excited about the stump we were removing.  He would tell me where the roots are and cheer me on as I got closer and closer to having the stump out of the ground.  He then pointed out how much work it was going to be to do the others.  We are going to be pulling and moving stumps for a long time.

After we were finished with one of the stumps, I decided that we should move on from that, and I went to start pulling the weeds from the flower bed.  That is also going to be a long process, but well worth it in the end.

I have talked about weeding a lot before, and have no interested in revisiting the depth of that, but I will say that somewhere during the process of pulling stumps and weeds, Q found some peace.  He went inside and played happily with B for the rest of the evening.