You can only build as high as your foundation is deep.
Yesterday we awoke to the beep-beep-beeping of a cement truck backing into our yard. The sun was just peaking above the mountains behind our house when the first slogs of Jell-O like mud began to hit the ground. It was a meaningful moment for me- when mud hits the ground in my life it always is….
My dad is a cement man- has been for over 50 years. Because of this, every home I have ever lived in has been surrounded by a foundation that he has set. It is a metaphor that has never been lost on me.
I don’t say too much about my parents here at Rx for the Soul – not because there is not much to say, but because they are quiet, private people. (If I mention them to the world, it is only when I have good reason, and by my estimation today, foundations are a good reason.)
Foundations are what my parents are golden at- both the cement mud kind, and the symbolic kind that parents give their children. When it comes to the literal kind, sports courts have popped up in our yards, the way tulips do for others. At our house, dirt paths become lovely walkways, and piles of rocks turn into planters and retaining walls. This mud that has been put into our yards with such care, has always been an example to me, of how love and generosity can transform one thing into quite another.
And those other kinds of foundations- the invisible ones that hold you up when life does everything it can to knock you down- my mom and dad have put more of those under me than I can count. These invisible infrastructures have shaped my life. They have supported my dreams, given rise to my accomplishments, and have held unconditional love up, despite the gravity of any mistake I could ever make. That infrastructure has given me a blueprint for the type of parent I want to always be to my own children.
All of these thoughts went through my mind as I drank my morning coffee and watched my dad’s men on hand and knee; turning a pile of mud into a beautiful patio. Watching their hard work was a subtle reminder to me from the Universe- that foundations don’t just appear, they have to be created. It is always up to us to do the work- to shift and move and smooth the raw materials we have been given- until we manage to turn our lives into a thing of beauty.
I have been blessed with parents who have given me the raw materials to build strong foundations. Some days I manage to build castles on them and some days even with my best efforts all that I can create are ruins. Yet despite my successes or failures, once the day is over, I know that tomorrow when I arise, there will once again be a foundation beneath me… and one more chance to turn my life into a thing of beauty.
My dad is a cement man <3