WINTER!

Brrrr! Its a chilly sub 40 degrees today. Just when I thought summer was upon us, the weather turned fickle and froze me out. I am back to wearing my warm woollies complete with knee socks and leather jacket. My breath hangs frozen on the air, moist steam hovering before my face as I shiver in the cold gray of morning light. There is frost on the car window. I wonder that the flowers and leaves are not curled up and withered by the blast of cold. Time to turn the heat ON!

Actually, summer doesn't truly come until end of June. We have been so spoiled with the warm sun and blue skies that the sudden dip in temperature seems cruel and unfair. How tempting to cuss this normal weather for not being more accommodating. Its rather like that with the seasons of life. When things are going well despite difficulties, we get used to feeling good. And when the normal stresses of life surface as they inevitably will, we get grumpy and think we are being mistreated.

As normal discouragements and disasters of life hit, how much more intelligent to simply put on the warm woollies - cover yourself with prayer, trust in God, truth, peace, the comfort of friends and family - and keep moving, finding some small appreciation in the tiny things of beauty that hover like our frozen breath on the air. This too shall pass. Warmer times will come, all in due course.