New View

He's standing between the lilacs.

Headed out this morning for a couple errands.  Returned home to find a couple strange guys working in the yard.  The Husband was on a phone call and couldn't chat, I'd have to exercise some patience. Decided to go get the mail, walked out the front door and realized the lilacs were gone!!!

Love the revealed window.

We've had more than a couple conversations this spring / summer about taking out the lilac bushes.  I've been pruning them every year.  But they just kept growing bigger and bigger.  I could no longer use the pruning shears to cut the thick branches.  I needed a chainsaw, which we don't have and I wouldn't have a clue how to use.  The bushes were pretty much out of control.  And much as I dislike dispensing with growing green things, I knew the time had come.

I figured we'd get to it "one of these days."

Looking down on the hollyhocks.

Unbeknownst to me, "one of these days" was today.  What an improvement!  We'll definitely have to find something pretty to put in that garden, but for now, I'll enjoy the openness and the bush/weed free view of the front of our house.

I'm grateful today for men willing and ready to do what we couldn't yet do ourselves.  They were hard workers.

I'm grateful for the knowledge that agency is part of Heavenly Father's plan.  Not only for me, but for for everyone.  We all get to choose.  Hopefully I'll choose wisely when it comes to actions (and reactions), words, judgements, kindness and the myriad other things within my choice-control.

I'm grateful for early morning walks, for blooming hollyhocks that make me smile, for a modicum of self-control and for prayer.