When I was a little girl, I remember looking through the photos at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I always loved to look at the pictures of the pond they had in Kansas City when my mom was little.

Grandpa told me many times how he took out two old tree stumps and was left with a couple of big holes in the backyard. He decided to cement them and make a couple of ponds. They were deep enough that my mom said she went "swimming" in them before he added the lillies. They were also deep enough that when he added fish, the cats couldn't get them. They even survived when the surface froze over.

After moving to California and leaving the ponds behind, Grandpa always wished he could have another. Instead he had to settle for an aquarium. He would take the cheap, feeder goldfish and raise them to be almost a foot long!

Grandpa moved in with us after Grandma died. He brought his goldfish with him. He would gaze into the backyard with me as I told him of my dream to have a pond some day.

After Grandpa passed away, I "inherited" the aquarium and continued to raise goldfish. It was the goldfish from that aquarium that became the first inhabitants of my pond.

I sure wish Grandpa could have lived long enough to see me finally have a pond. But I'm sure he's smiling down on me from heaven, watching me enjoy the soothing sounds of the waterfall, the playfulness of the fish and just being in awe of a God that could create in nature what we can only try to replicate.

~ Connie