My friend Hillary and I visited the Denver Botanic Gardens this morning for our 2008 inaugural visit. We had the kiddos in tow and toured for several hours. As nice as I'm sure it will be once everything is in bloom, there was a certain beauty in the resting plants. You could tell that things are starting to happen under the soil, and some of the bulbs are just starting to make their spring time appearance. We will have such an appreciation during the throws of spring and summer since we have seen the gardens in their current state.

I seem to be melding into my environment lately. There is so much going on under the surface, yet a confidence that everything will come in due time. Today the gardens reminded me how nature can miraculously bring you back to the now, the present, and can at the same time teach you to anticipate the future. That's how I feel right now about life, anticipating, but constantly reminded to enjoy the now, enjoy the process.

How much sweeter does your food taste when you grew it yourself? How much sweeter is a PR when you trained rigorously for an event? Delayed gratification is so sweet. When you watch something, or yourself, or your children, grow and learn it's the process that is so beautiful, not the outcome. The outcome is sweet, only if the process was memorable. Nature does it effortlessly, part of the cycle of life.