Being a Beginner

You know what's funny? The other day I was looking at some "before and after" photos of someone's new office and was wondering why I don't take those. I love looking at them-- whether they're mine or of something someone else has done. And they are so gratifying to have paired with the pretty "after" version. Well, working in my little roof garden last night, looking around at how small and pathetic it seemed, it came to me:

I hate taking the "before" pictures.

I take lots of pictures of the "after" part. And yeah, I know, having just the shiny, end result kind of defeats the purpose if you can't remember where you started. I get caught up in "It doesn't look good now!" instead of remembering that this is the starting point, and that it will look better and that its okay if its not great now. In fact that is the whole point of beginning something. To let it grow into something better. I'm not good at being a beginner.

Anyways. Here's the garden now.

 ( And you can get a glimpse of it in its even earlier days here.)

In a month it will be all glorious with vines and such. But this is where it started.