I thought that I'd share an entry from the private journal I kept this summer. It's one of those little lessons that I need to revisit often...

{ july 12. 2010.}

this morning i was out in the garden trying desperately to pick all the beans before the little prickly yellow caterpillars decimated what was left of our plants. i had to pull and separate the plants and leaves, searching around for the plump beans that were ready to be picked.

once i finished pulling all the beans off one plant, i moved to the next.

but it never failed that once i stepped away from the plants and looked at them from the distance, from a different perspective, i noticed several more beans i had missed.

as i stood out there hunched over the plants, sweat dripping off the tip of my nose, feeling a bit frustrated that my girls weren’t out there helping me get this job done, it occurred to me that there is a lesson about motherhood in bean picking.

i realized that oftentimes i am watching my children so closely. we are together all the time. running errands. eating meals. living. playing. cleaning. working. that often it obscures my view and perspective. i can’t see the “fruit” because i’m right on top of them.

but when i stand back, get a different perspective, ease off, there’s always more fruit to be seen that i hadn’t noticed before.