Spring Again

For the first time in a long time, I feel a joyful, bubbling well of hope. The sun will do that. So will rest. (Eleven hours of sleep, y'all. No nightmares. No 5:30 am neediness. This morning I was replaced with an iPad, a Netflix app, and a bag of oranges. And I'm good with that.)

The sun warms my shoulders as I rake away the last of the soggy, brown leaves from the front yard. Down the street I hear the shouts and laughter of my little boy and his friends playing pickup basketball. My daughter is driving home from softball practice while her daddy teaches/encourages/warns from the passenger seat.

After a long, cold winter, it's beginning to feel like spring.

I discovered some things about myself this winter. I don't like to feel stuck in the cold. And I can be kind of whiny and frustrated about feeling stuck in the cold. It's easy to feel a little bit hopeless. Always winter and never Christmas. I have a tendency to look around at warmer places like, say, Florida. "It's not cold in FLORIDA. What do we need to do to warm things up around HERE?" I tend to seek validation that yes, it really is cold. (Read: you are not crazy - a wind chill of negative 10 can freeze even the most even-tempered personality). And I also seem to have a deep need to warm things up. Seriously, what's it going to take? I'll move south, I'll shift the jet stream, I'll even start a fire in the living room if I need to. What do I have to DO?

Too much snow. Make it go away.

I discovered some things about God this winter. Sometimes He lets us stay stuck in the cold for a season. I had several opportunities to "move" somewhere that seemed a lot warmer. The grass looks a lot greener when it's not covered in six inches of snow, y'all. But each time God said, "No. Wait. I know it's cold, but take heart. I will overcome the cold." They say Aslan is on the move. I'm not always good at figuring out what God is doing/is going to do and/or whether I'm going to like whatever it is. But when God says wait, when He promises that spring is coming EVENTUALLY, I am learning to trust that He who enters the storehouses of snow can also make the sun stand still in the sky.

I discovered some things about the support of friends this winter. A listening ear feels a lot like that NorthFace parka I'm coveting. It buffers against the icy wind. It may not make the cold go away, but it makes it a lot more tolerable. And sometimes, sometimes, enough friends working together with God CAN shift the jet stream, CAN melt the snow, CAN make you believe that we shall have spring again.

And now I'm off to enjoy more teenage driving, more little boy basketball, more sun on my shoulders. Because while we may yet have another cold snap before winter truly releases its grip, today it feels like spring.

This year spring came on February 20. A day of new beginnings…

The Very Best Valentine's Day Present

My funny Valentine…
Sweet, comic valentine…
You make me smile with my heart…

I have been lucky enough to celebrate 26 Valentine's Days with my love. (Maybe 25. There was that time in college when we broke up. But that was only for one night. I don't *think* the breakup occurred over Valentine's Day - that would have been stupid of me - but the breakup WAS precipitated by someone else buying me flowers. So…)

Trent is the romantic in the family. He's not into buying flowers and chocolates and whatnots, though. His gifts take months of thought and planning. He specializes in big events - the year Sam was two we bought a fixer-upper and I thought I'd never leave the house again except to go to work and Lowe's: he arranged childcare and a surprise overnight getaway complete with chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne. Or last November after sixteen months of near-cocooning with our son he arranged a four-day vacation to South Beach and somehow stayed well within budget. (Except perhaps for the lobster ravioli at Prime Italian. But that was worth breaking the bank.) Those are just a couple of his wonderful and romantic presents.

Today he gives his best present ever - a present six months in the making, one that has required daily thought, prayer and sacrifice.

Today is the day he completes his six month water challenge and buys a well for a village in Malawi with the money he's saved.

Photo from Marion Medical Mission (www.mmmwater.org)

I am smitten. In his words:

Today my six months of drinking H2O only comes to an end.  I was hoping to have some great revelations to share with everyone on the lessons I learned.  The truth is, the lessons were all simple ones that I have always known, but choose to not make a part of my daily thought process...until now.

1.       There is always someone that has it worse than you.  Each time that I “deprived” myself of a drink other than water, I was reminded that I have never really been deprived of anything in my life.  I will probably never know the feeling of hunger or thirst or want for anything.  It was so easy to not appreciate the little things in life.  Not anymore.  Appreciate all He has given you.

2.       With God, all things ARE possible…even if it’s as small as only drinking water, or the bigger challenges that God places in front of us.  We can’t do them without Him, so why do we try so hard to do everything on our own?  Lean on Him daily.

3.       It’s great to have the support of family and friends.  If it’s as easy as supporting a friend’s challenge or as hard as supporting a friend who is experiencing a life-changing challenge, God made us loving and relational creatures who are able to show our love for Him by showing our love for each other.  Show love every day.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

If you would like to donate to the Marion Medical Mission Shallow Well program, you can follow this link http://www.mmmwater.org/

The site will give you information about the program.  100% of the donation will go toward the Shallow Well. One well is $400 but any size donation, larger or smaller is appreciated.

Happy Valentine's Day! Be love.