Article 13: Mrs Incredible and Our Garden
Mrs Incredible is my wife Teresa. She really is an extraordinary woman and I am so blessed to have been fortunate enough to trick her into marrying me.
And trick is the only word that seems to make sense because all of my buddies constantly remind me that I married way, way beyond my league.
True enough, nevertheless, as I remind her all of the time, she gave her full consent in public, in a church and there is no way she can get out of it now.
Seriously, my wife is a really great Catholic woman who over the last 9 years has been there for me over and over again. I on the other hand have at times been a serious boob. She seems to have grown up so much over the last 9 years and me…not so much.
Anyways, this year my wife has gotten all excited about planting a garden. This is new for her, she has never shown any interest in planting a garden. But this year is different.
Our marriage has come a long way in 9 years. I don’t know what everybody else goes through in the first 9 years but our marriage has grown a ton. And today, we are in a very good place. We are both almost on the same page spiritually, prayer is a big part of both of our lives, being a simple Catholic family is important for both of us, loving each other more than we love our kids is important to us, raising good kids who change the world by loving Jesus is important to both of us. And it seems after a ton of growth over several years, our marriage has in many ways finally arrived.
And then all of a sudden she wants to plant a garden. And do it organically no less. This is awesome! She is watching gardening videos, looking at gardening articles, figuring out how we turn our children’s diapers into compust, really serious stuff.
And as she and I spend our time preparing the soil to plant this year’s garden I can’t help but think that this organic garden is an appropriate metaphor for our marriage today.
In the past, we spent too much time worrying about the world’s definition of Happy Marriage, following the world’s advice about what constitutes Marital excitement, and viewing the World’s examples of Marital Bliss. Today, we both are much more concerned with God’s definition of Happy Marriage, Marital Excitement and Marital Bliss.
As we have become better at Trusting God’s will for our lives; as we have become better at measuring our worth up to God’s values; as we have discovered the natural rhythm of God’s law in our lives, our Marriage has improved.
And today, we are trying to discover the natural rhythm of this soil in our backyard. Sure, we could shoot our yard and our garden with a bunch of chemicals and synthetic fertilizers….and we would get short term gain…and our yard and garden would look like everyone elses but…..what if we didnt’? What if instead we learned about what the soil underneath the grass and garden really need? And do the hard labor necessary to build good soil? And do it the right way? Maybe our grass and garden won’t look like the neighbors. Maybe in the short term there will be a few more weeds, dandylions, a little bit of clover, and maybe the strawberries will be smaller. And maybe that is okay?
Who wants to look just like the neighbors anyway?
My wife and I have discovered both in our marriage and in our garden, that maybe having the greenest lawn is not the ultimate goal.
Maybe having the healthiest soil is.
So here is to my Mrs Incredible and Our Garden. With God’s help, and from one Earth Creature to another…..lets go make some good soil!
