A Garden of Should

We have now lived in the RV half of the amount of time that we lived in the actual house on base here. It's redefining the way I see permanent and temporary. It's also been making me think some about the way we put down roots...or intentionally avoid putting down roots...or think we should be putting down more roots than we actually are.

This last week the kids and I bought plants, which always seems to me to be one way of planting my flag and saying, "Here, I stay! This is home!" Admittedly, I brought a potted gardenia bush down from my mom's last month, but she gave it to me while tactfully informing me that it was already dying so I couldn't do any worse. I was really excited that it seemed to be sprouting new leaves in the last few weeks only to notice it looking a bit scraggly the last couple of days. Turns out Bee was stealing leaves from it to make "soup" having been banned from pulling up the newly growing grass. She is now banned from all "soup" making endeavors from here on out.

Anyway, we have now added two small pots of succulents for the inside of the house (place your bets now on how long it will take me to kill them) and an herb garden that the kids conned me into. But this is just one kind of roots.

I knew we were putting down an altogether different kind when we went to the library on base the other day. I was last in line, herding the kids up the stairs and around the corner to the library when I heard footsteps and a male voice saying, "Well, hi there!" Followed by a brief pause. "And hi to you too! And you! And hi to you!" I rounded the corner, holding Twinkle, to see a pair of men walking past my line of children, and I said to them, "They just keep coming, don't they?" The men laughed, and we proceeded down the hall to the library only to hear, faintly drifting up from the stairwell, "Oh, that's the Frizzells!"

Yes, that is the Frizzells. We may be infamous.

We are on a first name basis with the librarians (at both libraries). The office workers at the RV park expect Trigger to come in with us to get a dog treat when we check the mail. And they even brought our mail by for us when we'd been out of town for a week. But honestly, aside from the Man's work, our homeschool co-op, and our immediate RV neighbors (who can hear shrieks of glee and sometimes bellows of rage emanating from our trailer at all hours of the day), this is it. It is a small life.

And it feels kind of temporary. I guess that's what happens when you are living in an RV. And maybe that's as it should be. People here are busy rebuilding their lives, and we are just hanging on until the next assignment. Hanging on sounds like we are just barely surviving, and that's not what I mean. I bought plants, for goodness sake. But we know that this is not forever. You can do anything for a year (and some change). Even put down tiny tentative roots.

I find myself thinking, sometimes, about all the ways I "should" be putting down "real" roots. In my mind, I should be planting a metaphorical vegetable garden, with flowering borders and well-labeled signs, instead of being content with succulents and herbs. But oftentimes our "shoulds" are more a reflection of our own guilt and not really a reflection of reality.

I don't know if you are in a season of planting trees (and watering them well) or buying small succulents (and occasionally spritzing them with water while crossing your fingers and hoping for the best), but may we be faithful to walk in the right way...and then to ignore our own voices telling ourselves that it's not enough. May we remember today that it is enough to be faithful to what Christ calls us to do...and not try to unnecessarily add on more. The cross he has given us to bear is enough. Plant what he has called you to plant. Be where he has called you to be. Serve where he has asked you to serve. And be content to be small and let him be large, knowing that it's not about you, but about him, and the roots that hold us best are the ones sunk deeply into him.