Not to long ago my husband and I and our 2 youngest children returned home to our place in the mountains after being gone an extended amount of time to find that our home had not been taken care of like we thought it would be.  That is a story in itself but the facts are that we had to literally dig our way back out of the forest that borders our home.  Rose bushes had been left to take over and the leaves that had been left to kill off the grass.  Nothing looked anything like what is was supposed to look like.  When we returned it was in November and we would have to wait until spring to start over again.  I spent the rest of the winter months getting the inside of the house back to normal just blocking out the outside.  My oldest son who had gotten leave came home with his new wife and pitched in on trying to just get the dog pen in order.  For days we raked in the cold and burned the leaves.  Nothing but mud remained.  It was so depressing.  After the weather started to warm up and things started to come back, I reseeded the lawn and put down some lime to get the moss under control.  Things stated to grow and you could begin to see an outline of what had survived and what was needing to be removed.  I started to gain some momentum.  After the first initial cut of grass after 8 months of not being mowed it started to look even better.  The only thing was that I was so tired after the mowing that I did not want to return to the garden until the next cutting.  But things started to  get better.  By the time the roses started to bloom I started to see what beauty was still there.  And now I am still pushing forward uncovering it as if it was a treasure waiting to be discovered.  Our leaving for such an extended period and entrusting someone to oversee our home has taught me a valuable lesson.  It has made me very thankful for what we have.  It has made the old saying out of necessity blooms great ideas a reality.  I have used all the resources here at our home.  The leaves I have turned to mulch and have made the rose beds a pleasure to see again.  I have lined them with the limbs that fell in the woods and in our yard.  I have used the stones to make another walk way and the list still goes on. Oh I still have to straighten the bird bath and the bird feeder that the bear took out but it is an ongoing labor of love.  Moral of this story is redemption is always there you just have to work at it.