Lesson 8- Keep a promise

 

 

I have never seen my granddaughter (whose pen name is Valerie Fields) so excited. All weekend long she told everyone the story of how she kept her promise.

Last week, she made a pinky promise (the kind that guarantees woe to anyone who breaks it) with her daddy that she would go all week without getting her folder signed at school. Getting your folder signed is not like getting your glove signed at a baseball game or your shirt signed at a concert. This signature comes from a parent. It proves to the teacher that your parent found out about your less than stellar behavior. Valerie goes days without needing her mom's signature. But a week? And the week before spring break, at that. Wow. I know what a commitment that was. And the effort it took on her part.
I asked Valerie Fields how she accomplished this huge goal. She told me:

"Well, I told myself I could do it. Then I just believed it."

You know whose promise I wish I could believe in? Spring. No offense, Ground Hog, but I don't think I'm the only one confused. There have been signs everywhere in my yard that spring is coming. Little green shoots of fern and vines peering from brown leaves. Last week a rogue bloom on my gardenia. Like these over-anxious volunteers, I am so ready for winter to be over. And yet, in the same week the gardenia bloomed, I rescued the morning newspaper from frost. My mother had a sign in her garden for years that read,
"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."
The unknown factors in gardening are just as critical to harvest as water and soil condition. There are things the gardener controls and things she just has to believe.
Believing, without really knowing it will happen. That's the hardest part of any promise.
Just ask Valerie Fields. She'll show you her folder.
 



my mother in her garden-where she always believed