It’s now 9 pm – and it has been a wonderful but sad day.  I don’t usually use the blog on our business site as a sounding board, but today is different.  What is so different today?

This morning, I took our oldest grandson to the doctor for his fall sports physical.  A 12 year old who so wants to be a teenager, a tough young man resilient to anything that life can hand him – but still so afraid of the shots that he needed to enter 7th grade.  A couple of “private hugs”, and encouragement,  turned his fear  into a smile that I’ll forever remember.  Quickly followed was school supply shopping before returning to the nursery to meet with Sean, who showed me a few things I needed to know to update our website.  But before  leaving Owatonna, I drove past the  Steele County Fairgrounds where the funeral was just beginning for a man that meant so much  to me — Mr. Elmer Reseland.  A true legend.  He has forever touched me – years ago – and today.  RIP Elmer.  I love you!

Due to “life happening” this summer – Heidi – our retail manager (aka almost daughter) who is going through a very tough challenge health wise, and Leif, my husband, who is coming off of 12 days in the hospital – but a great recovery – we spent today at home as we did some landscaping at our house.  The “joke” among the crew today – “What happens when a tree falls in the woods?”   — Answer – “Leif landscapes”.

After two days of really hard work – our crew transformed a formerly ugly area of our yard into an incredibly  beautiful spot.  We seeded grass seed, which is going to take a little while, but it is so beautiful already.  We want to thank the 5 guys from our crew who helped us with this transformation.  It’s truly incredible.  We can’t wait to share it with friends, family and customers.    Awesome.

But — the most humbling of anything today was later this afternoon when one of our employees who has faced a less than fortunate life path, sat with us by our campfire, and said “Wow, this is great, I haven’t sat by a campfire for as long as I can remember”.   The smile on his face said it all.  He was so appreciative of everything today.. of spending time in the woods – of helping create something beautiful, but just of life’s small simple pleasures. … That wasn’t the best thing about today – the best thing was that we were able to experience his smile – his true warmth in his appreciation of life’s simple pleasures.  It made me really take a look at the fire tonight as it slowly faded..   It’s not the money which we can’t take with us, or the social class which some think is so important – but it is the small, simple pleasures..  The smile of a man who is not as fortunate as we are, truly appreciating what we have given him and have shared with him.  Life is good.  Please – take time to  appreciate the small treasures that are all around us.  God bless today.