Hope

I've mentioned that I see many similarities between nature and the things we experience in our own lives.  In the photo above, a beautiful display of pink and white impatiens has been overflowing all summer.  When frost threatened, I dug up two of the plants and brought them inside.  I cut the rest of the plants off at ground level and threw them on the brush pile.

I've been a little extra heavy-hearted lately.  Although I love the fall, it does bring the closing of summer and the days get shorter and there's less time for working outside.  Being outside in the sun and working hard is the way I was raised.  I don't think I'm fanatical about it, I enjoy being inside and cooking and doing homey things, too.  And watching Netflix and drinking beer.  But I'm comfortable spending part of the day doing some strenuous work outside.

Another reason for me being heavy-hearted are the changes this year has brought me.  People I love have moved out of my life, for one reason or another, and I do hate to let go of people I love.  I guess I'm learning, though, that just because I love someone or something, it doesn't mean I have to keep them. It's possible to love without ownership... the ultimate in unconditional, no-strings-attached love.  Maybe that's how God feels?  He loves us all, even those who reject Him.  It makes me feel  better to think that way, anyway. ... To think that maybe I'm learning, a little bit, to love like God does.

I'm old enough, and have been through enough, to know that I will feel better some day.  There's even a scripture that says "... weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."  That's Psalm 30:5.  Mostly the 'night' is much more than one night, but that's where the waiting comes in.  I talked in an earlier post of learning to wait, and this is part of that waiting for me.  Waiting patiently, or sometimes waiting impatiently, is changing me.  I'm growing up a little bit.  Maybe some day I'll be a big girl after all.

So, knowing that some day I will feel better means I'm hoping for a better day... a better time.  I know that sometimes I have been in a place in my life that I thought I'd be there forever, that I would just stay that way and live that way until I died.  Then, either gradually or suddenly, my life takes a turn.  Sometimes I wake up one morning and look back over several months or years and realize that things have changed and they've been changing all along and I didn't even know it; sometimes I turn a corner and "boom" it happens in an instant.  But it has always happened.  So it is now for me in this new season of life.

I was thinking these thoughts a couple days ago as I worked outside, and when I headed to the house something bright pink caught my eye among the dead leaves in the empty planter.  I bent down and discovered that, although I had dug up or chopped off all of the plants in the planter, one bright pink blossom was winking up at me from the drab background.  It was stunning to see.  It immediately brought to mind my recent thoughts on waiting and hoping for better things in my own life.  How out of seemingly impossible conditions, life comes to us again.  Bright and sparkling and fresh.  And how, because of the drab background, life seems even brighter and more glorious.

You may need to click on the photo and make it larger to see my bright pink blossom.  And if you are like me, I encourage you to claim this little flower for your own, too, to give you hope and promise of a better day.

Blessings,

Katrinka