Wednesday, April 4, 2012

New Beginnings



Spring has definitely sprung! I don't remember ever having such an early warm season.  The lilacs have been in full bloom for over a week now.  The tulips and daffodils are dropping their beautiful petals.  The grass has been mowed a couple of times now.  And it's just April 4th.

I'm not complaining, mind you.  Well, maybe a little about the mowing part, but it's wonderful to have this warm spring weather so early in the year!  The amazing thing to me is, though, why is it that so many people are only finding the down side to this? 

"This means our summer will be especially long and that means higher utility bills with all the air conditioning."  "Well, I certainly hope that this doesn't mean we'll have winter start in August."  "I had to drag out my summer clothes already."

I LOVE spring!  The earth awakens from its long slumber and the browns and grays are now an entire spectrum of beautiful colors.  The birds and squirrels are 'home' again and sing and chirp outside my window to sound my morning alarm.  And, OK, I'm sneezing, which means we're definitely into springtime, but it will pass.

New beginnings.  How exciting they are!  I recently rearranged my office.  I simply turned my desk ninety degrees to face the window.  I love to rearrange my furniture, at home and at the office.  It's like having an entirely new place.  A new beginning...change the appearance of what is inside the four walls and you change much more.  You change what's inside, you change your perspective, as well.

A little shift in how you see things, can open all kinds of new doors.  I enjoy these shifts.  I actually thrive in the midst of them. Finding new and challenging ways of doing and seeing things is, I believe, what life if all about.  It's where we learn the lessons that God has set out for us.

The comfortable is nice.  It's secure.  It's sure.  And, in the winters of my life, I need that security.  But spring is where I grow.  It's where I learn. 

I'm ever so grateful for each of the seasons and each of the years of my life.  My son asked me recently when I thought I would decide to stop or at least slow down the seasons of my life. "I mean, you are getting older, Mom."  I didn't even need to think about my response. 

When my heart stops beating and my life leaves this earthly body to move to whatever is next in God's heaven, it will be the best spring ever and I can hardly wait for what comes after that!

 To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time
to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:1,2