"This does have a purpose doesn't it?" My son asked after several hours of working in the hot sun to clear the broken limbs and branches from our front yard, after a recent storm. 

 

"Um, well, I thought it might." I answered, pondering the question, and wondering if there was an answer in there for me too. "Maybe the purpose is to give us an appreciation for those winds that don't blow, and the times when we don't have to pick up broken branches."  I offered the lamest purpose I could think of first.

 

"Or maybe it's so we can have a pretty green yard again, like before the storm." My younger son piped up. "I want to rebuild the fish pond too."  He added, pointing to a hole in the ground where we recently pulled up a holey liner after some neighborhood dogs jumped in and ripped the sides. 

 

I looked at the pond, and wondered if I dared put a new liner in, or if it would be as futile as the last one.  Less than a year, and the dogs shredded it the last time. 

 

I think there must be a purpose here somewhere.  I thought almost mockingly as I focused back on the growing stack of firewood, that I didn't even have a fireplace to burn.  I slugged through another branch and stacked it before I put the ax down and worked my way through the brambles to the front walk. I had a whole list of things to get done in the yard, and work waiting on my computer.  Neither would get done this day.  I decided as I plopped on the swing near the front porch.  I wanted a break.

 

Gray clouds were building in the western sky, threatening rain, or at very least a storm, and the afternoon was quickly fading. 

 

"Yes, there is a purpose to life." I answered my son as the two of them joined me on the swing.  "The purpose of this life today is PIZZA!"  They hooped and hollared for a bit, and then stopped. 

 

"Pizza?"

 

"Yep, go get cleaned up, we're going out for pizza."  I told them, stepping up out of my swing and following them inside the house. 

 

"That's a great purpose for life, mom."  My son laughed as he headed for the shower.

 

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