Bring it on?

Yesterday was non-stop. As soon as I woke up, I went outside, moved and fed the chickens, put together the new hose reel I bought with birthday money, then started watering. I normally don't need to water anything around here until July, but it's been so hot and dry that everything would be dead if I didn't. I am thankful I didn't plant more fruit trees like I wanted. Since I don't have enough hose to reach everything, I have five-gallon buckets with a little holed drilled in their bottoms to water the trees. I fill these from another bucket, and while the buckets are watering one tree, I water another with the hose set on a trickle. Quite the routine.

As I was performing this little watering dance, I was thinking about all the projects on my list: finish building the clothesline poles, pick green beans, finish building the chicken plucker, build a bat house with Joe, (the list doesn't really end)... I reveled for a minute and thanked God for what my life had become, then thought, "I'll be really mad if the world ends in my lifetime. I'm having too much fun." Then the religious angel on my shoulder said, "Shame on you! Are you saying you'd rather be here than in heaven worshipping God?" I flicked him off my shoulder and decided that as long as I could at least garden in heaven, I wouldn't complain too much, I suppose.

Of course, that got me thinking some more. About how life isn't much fun if we don't have a challenge to overcome. I thought of kids and how most of the joy of growing up is all about conquering challenges: learning to roll over, learning to walk, pour your own milk, do a head stand, help bake a cake...

Maybe I'm just not enlightened enough to understand, but an afterlife with no challenges, no opportunity to grow, sounds dull.

This morning, after a late-night failed attempt at watering the garden (something in the well, the pump, pressure tank, and sprinkler system always seems to go awry), I crawled out of bed and tried to open my eyes. I wasn't feeling up for as much of a challenge today. Ha.