Jeff and I give each other traditional anniversary gifts each year. The traditional gift for the sixth anniversary is iron, and for our sixth anniversary I got Jeff an iron fire pit. The thing was a behemoth that was loaded into my car at Lowe's by two workers, and it remained in my car until Jeff and I wrangled it out. Jeff and I somehow managed to get it to the backyard, and it sat there untouched for many, many years. The kids were too young, and we never made time to use it.
But then last summer we went to my grandmother's house, and she has a build a bonfire in her backyard. And the kids LOVED it. We had a fantastic time around the bonfire.
And we realized that if the kids could handle an open fire in a backyard, they could probably be respectful of a fire in a nice, controlled fire pit. Still, building a fire in the yard isn't something we make time for every day. We enjoyed a fire on Thanksgiving. And that's been about it.
I was a grumpy pants all weekend. I wasn't fun to be around, and the things I did weren't turning out quite right. Nothing seriously wrong, but nothing going smoothly like it does when I can feel myself on the right path. But then Jeff suggested a fire this afternoon. I went along with it, even though it didn't make sense. I had a million things I wanted to do. It wasn't what I had planned. But it sounded...nice.
And so we all headed outside around 4:30 this afternoon, and Jeff lit in a fire in our fire pit. A funny thing happened. Once I got out there I relaxed and read. I also discovered that while our front yard is looking quite lovely, I hadn't touched the back yard yet this spring. So when I asked the kids if they wanted to eat dinner outside and they excitedly said yes, I found myself actually wanting to weed the patio (we have pavers and the weeds love to grow between them). I weeded the patio, and we ate, and I definitely made time to watch the fire. And I felt a wonderful calm come over me. So although I didn't do all the things that I planned to do (that I couldn't have crammed into a few hours on a Sunday afternoon anyway), I still feel ready for the week. It's amazing what a little bit of calm can do.
(Yes, even this crew, this close to the fire pit, can help me relax.)
