I am just ashamed. After all of those posts where I complained about the heat this summer, I haven't taken the time yet this week to rejoice (here) in the reprieve we are having. Highs in the 90's! Which may sound hot to some, but we are loving it here! That we can actually walk out of our door without feeling like our faces are going to burn straight off is incredible! Last evening, Buddy and I went out to get the final load of sheets off of the line. We walked out and I said "doesn't it feel great out here?!?" and he, being unable to tell the difference between the 70 something degrees our ac was pumping out, and the 80 something degrees that was outside replied "it feels...normal!!!". And he was right. Finally, some normal temps!
This is my favorite time of year. I love the transition from summer into autumn. The way the sunlight changes as it streams in through our 80 year old windows. It is this time of year that I understand what Joni meant when she said that the sun comes in like butterscotch and sticks to all my senses. I feel that way too. And if the butterscotch sun had a smell, it would be the smell of hope. This is what paying attention to the seasons can offer you. The chance to see that just as the seasons shift, the seasons of our lives shift too. Just when you think the oppression of the summer will not end, autumn sweeps in and offers hope.
This summer has been a difficult one for us for various reasons. Both in the actual situations and in the ways we had to learn to cope with those situations. This week even has been hard. So, so hard. But then there is that butterscotch sun reminding me in the hope I can have. And in Whom my hope is found. I am reminded that the prophet Isaiah shared that He (God) gives beauty for ashes and gladness for mourning. So when I burn out all of my own resources, and wonder why I still can't stand, I look to my Father, and I'm reminded. He can make something beautiful out of all of this burnt out mess. And the hope that He offers clings to all of my senses...if I let it. And I do. I am so hungry for the beauty that I open myself up to it. I am broken and healed all at once.
But the trick,
the trick,
is in the remembering. The noticing. The allowing.
That is why I can truly rejoice in the fact that we are having some reprieve around here.
2 comments:
i know that feeling...walking out to hang wash on the line in the morning and not breaking a sweat...amazing!
I didn't remember that quote from Isaiah--it's so beautiful, I'm going to write it down so I can remember it.
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