I sat on the porch last night after a long day at work, trying to unwind a bit, sipping a cup of decaf and watching the remains of a thunderstorm that had just passed over. We have had quite a few thunderstorms this week. However this one was gentle....more gentle than the others... The rain created this beautiful mist and cool breeze that was calling me to come outside and take notice.
So I did for a brief moment. I needed to just sit and smell it all in.
Wes was inside recovering. He has been in pain all week thanks to a few cracked teeth that he eventually had to get pulled. It is hard watching someone go through that. If you have ever had a tooth go bad and know the throbbing feeling, it is gut wrenching.
Praise God he is on ‘the other side’, but recovery from having them removed takes some time as well. So I made him some mashed potatoes and pudding, doped him up on some pain medicine, and went outside to just sit a minute....Needless to say I am tired of ‘recovering’. We have had to recover from many things this winter and I am hoping that we are on the last part of it. It is or was last night, beginning to make me angry and resentful...
I needed to just get outside the house for a minute. Breathe in the storm. Or the ‘after’ storm. Observe what the Lord has been doing...take notice. And like He does, upon just looking around for a minute, he reminded me quickly how caught up I have been getting in the ‘junk’...how narrow my focus has been on the issues. I have forgotten to look around. To take notice. And to be thankful.
You know what I saw? Life is on the horizon. Spring is....springing.
There was an eerie peacefulness that was present in the breeze. The trees at our house are bursting forth with branches of flowers while the ground is sprouting everywhere shoots of kelly green life. I know I know...I sound a little ‘flowery’ today. I agree.
But recognizing that spring is opening up around me has a ‘flowery’ effect on me. Can’t help but smile. Hands down my favorite season. Even over fall. I can be outside. I can play in the evenings longer than I could. My pasty white body welcomes the warm vitamin D it has been longing for all winter long. And the flowers....the sweet smell of lilacs and daffodils. Cherry blossoms and dogwood blooms.
There is just something to be said about new life. Coming out of a season where it is dark early, freezing cold winds, snowy weather that makes you want to curl up and hibernate; to seeing the first glimpses of sunshine and flowers appear, does something to you. My heart was all of a sudden lifted. It did something to my inner countenance. And all it took was a brief moment of looking up and around.
Somehow, in that instant, all of a sudden, it was as if the Lord showed me new life. New life that was sprouting around me that I had been missing because of a narrow focus on the death and mourning. And I just had to stop and thank Him....eucharisteo. I had been missing it this week.
This winter has been hard. Horribly hard. Death, grieving, transition, stress, injustice, tears....Seeing spring suddenly appear before my eyes gave me somewhat of a renewed sense of hope for the future. Hope for joy again. Hope for new life to appear. Hope for peaceful sunny days in the sunshine. And He said, “I never left you”....”I was here all along”....”Open your eyes to the new life I am bringing”....”breathe me in”.
It wasn’t long before my peaceful moment was broken with the buzzing of the dryer going off telling me to come and fold the clothes before the wrinkles set in. (I am kind of anal about that). But before I let the buzzer get the best of me, I thanked the Lord for letting me see. Even if only for a brief moment.
“Tears and sorrow may last for a night...but joy comes in the morning”...
Thank you Lord Jesus this day for new life. Thank you for the sunshine and the flowers. Thank you for the warm air. Thank you for what is to come.
Spring is my Euchariseo today.
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