Tending Roses

I finished a book this weekend. It is called Tending Roses by Lisa Wingate. The book really touched me on many levels. I think I could relate to the main character somewhat b/c I too am a mom with small children. The main character spends 3 weeks living with her grandma after her grandma has suffered a stroke. Her grandma records some life lessons in a notebook which she leaves out on the table for her to find. The book is always left out at just the right moment with just the right story to teach her the lesson she needed at that time (showing that old Grandma knows more than what they are giving her credit for). As I read the book I found myself missing my grandmothers.

The line that really stuck with me from the book is taken from one of the letters the grandma wrote to her granddaughter. She was talking about some rose bushes she had in her front yard and how she enjoyed pruning them and caring for them. She then talked about how when her kids were small she didn't have time for them and it wasn't until they had grown that she really spent time taking care of them again. Looking back on her life, the grandma wrote, "I think that the best times of my life, the times that passed by me the most quickly, were the times when the roses grew wild." What a great lesson for mothers of preschoolers. These days will pass all to quickly, let's spend them doing what is really important.