Growing up, the 3rd month of the year always marked the end of winter for me. After all, it is my birthday month and it seemed appropriate for new life to be budding in the great outdoors as well. Then about 10 years ago Shane and I moved to Fargo, ND and I learned that there is an entirely different timetable for spring in the north country, as in "blizzards and floods come before the buds".
Minneapolis is not proving to be in any more of a hurry to welcome little green glimpses of life reborn. It's March 31st and white precipitation is predicted for tomorrow, yet knowing New England is expecting some of the same unwelcome weather makes me feel a little better. I hope my family isn't mad at me after reading that.
As if to reiterate the delay of spring, March here has been quiet indoors as well. Sick kiddos have a way of slowing life down. Let me state for the record that I REALLY don't like to see my children sick, I mean what mom besides Roseanne Barr does (the sitcom character of course, I have no idea if the real Roseanne even has children)? I dislike the helplessness and anxiety that rises up in me when I have no control over how miserable they feel. And then I think of the Mom of the child with chronic illness and I know I have nothing to fuss about.
Sickness aside, I have welcomed the quiet. OK, fine, not at first. There were some cancellations of plans that I was pretty bummed about. Then I had significant amounts of extra cuddle time and moments that righted my perspective. The truth is, I think my soul has needed the quiet even more so and appropriately I am still in the midst of "One Thousand Gifts" and gleaning a lot of nourishment from reading it and I know there is yet more to come. I have taken a slow and thoughtful tempo and it has been good.
So these last days of winter's slumber are not for naught and God has graciously given me opportunity to take advantage of them.
Even so, last evening as I was home in bed, having succumbed at last to the germs that have long been invading our home, I was feeling weary and cooped up. Downstairs I heard the back door open and the troops coming in from being at church. Not the usual noisy voices but little whispers and soon quiet little steps coming up the stairs. Smiling faces peek around the corner and then this:
Ah, love in a bouquet. Lilies have always been my favorite and of course the one who holds my heart knows this.
Some are in full bloom bringing color, life and hope to our cave. A few more still have not yet opened, offering promise of beauty if I patiently wait.
Spring will come, as it always does, even in Minnesota. For those of us that have to wait a bit longer for it to make an appearance, I wonder if our appreciation grows with the anticipation.
For everything there is a season. In the winters of all of our lives there is purpose and isn't it the spring that shows off best what winter has been up to?
Happy Spring to you!
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