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While visiting Vancouver, B.C., my wife and I took a day trip to Victoria, the government seat of British Columbia.

On our way down Highway 17 toward the seaside capitol, we took a brief side tour to visit beautiful Buchart Gardens.

These extraordinarily, exquisite gardens, which are tucked away along a country road just 20 minutes from Victoria, are an incredible experience to see. The breathtaking diverse blooms seem larger than life, as if something special in the earth created their beauty.

No doubt the island's moist climate is ideal to support the magnificent landscapes that you encounter in the gardens. But, surely, more than climate, is the attentive care of the workers who, daily, work the soil to channel nature's way into a rainbow of color.

For me it is a small step in thought to view Buchart's beauty as a metaphor for how our children can become kids of character. Yes, every child is endowed with the gift of life from the Giver of life. But a child does not grow up to live a noble life without the careful nurturing of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches, or special exemplars who influence and shape a child's patterns of thought and behavior to cause a beautiful young life to shine its brilliant character color in our world.

Clearly, character nurturing is needed to ground kids in the soil of moral and ethical thought that produces noble thinking and action. No less wondrous than the blooms of Buchart Gardens, are today's children who can receive care and attention from special adults interested in growing the garden of humanity with aspirations of building a noble culture of character.

As responsible adults we have much to do in growing the character garden in the minds of our loved children and youth. Character work with children is endless, daily and repetitive. Character work requires focused attention.

Character work with our children brings virtue's beauty to our homes, neighborhoods and communities. It is worth our personal efforts with the children we love to help raise up kids of character.