Change

No geographic barriers keep cold air from sweeping across the western states and spilling icy winds into Dallas, and dropping temperatures. Yesterday was so lovely – low seventies, sunny, and a persistent wind that limited any attempt to rake up the leaves and acorns; perfect pansy planting weather.  

 

Grow Pansies! 

A good thing, too -- Today, I couldn’t work outside for love or money! 

Twenty-four hours – what a change. More change is coming with the onslaught of cold winds – and the remains of my autumn garden will succumb to frost. I am glad I put some fresh color in! Bloom on pansies – stand tall snapdragons! Multiply you cabbage and GROW!

 

Hoping some colors survive and thrive! 

I like change and I don’t. I like it when I do something new; but, not so much when I can’t control the new . . . when change does to me what I didn’t anticipate.

So much of what makes my life comfortable are people doing what I anticipate they will do – even If I don’t like what they do. But when they make changes in how they think or act or talk, I can’t stay the same.  Nor, usually can anything else in my life.

Well, I could try to keep things, including myself, the same. Then I think of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, and realize failing to consider the upside of disappointments can limit a girl’s prospects.

No, change is normal – change is necessary!  Even if it’s not what I want. Change is the code in creation that makes life bearable, and understandable. If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown Pollyanna

Surveying  our little corner of creation  in the midst of changing weather,  I realized that for all my handiwork, our backyard will change. First, because of the seasons – a power greater than myself sets the amount of heat and sun, and regulates the rain. (Ecclesiastes 3) Second, how diligently I tend my duties affects the yard. (Proverbs 6:6) And third, my tenure here – when it is up— well . . . yards and houses in this neighborhood disappear in a day, enfolded into far grander schemes. (Psalm 39:5, 144:4)

Winds of change keep whipping around my life too – I know I am changing – not always so gracefully.  But, hey – according the conventional wisdom recorded by Pinterest: Only dead fish go with the flow!

Every single thing changes and is changing always in this world. Yet with the same light the moon goes on shining. ~ Saigyo

You must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler. ~Denis Waitley

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, and keep advancing. ~Saint Augustine

Before the First Frost

Change of Plans

Battery Lamp May 8 2014

Yes, I knew today would be stormy. But I was startled when the alerts for a tornado went off. (Rough weather - May-Dallas News) Something about “take shelter immediately” when one has nowhere to shelter can get a girl’s heart racing – especially given the damage recently inflicted by storms barreling through Arkansas and Alabama last month. And then the power went out. Into the powder room we trudged, and waited for an all-clear, which came within 15 minutes.

Still no power.

The tidy porches were waterlogged, and things blown about. The yard took a beating – tree limbs and debris everywhere; the mercy is that two inches of rain fell. It didn’t end the drought, but it bought a bit of time.

Whatever it was that visited it us, it disrupted power, and our plans for a quiet evening -- Just as life always does when we are making other plans. (John Lennon)

So, we took ourselves out for dinner, splitting a steak and potato.  As we were finishing, a person ambled in, covered in a torn trash bag, wet, and searching.  They looked around and quietly left.  I bundled the untouched dinner rolls, and we quickly left – trying to share what would have just been tossed. When we found the person, we honestly couldn’t tell if the person was a he or she, so thin and disguised they were in baggy clothes – covered by a holey bag.    

Almost twenty years ago, we encountered another soul, wandering, hungry, homeless just down the street – then as now, both were reminders of what I could have been, but for God’s mercy.

The power came back as we readied ourselves for bed -- and I had to record this weather lesson. 

Somebody may have prayed – But, somebody said or did something that became a lifeline. And I found my way out of the scary places that the two street folk I have encountered still wander.

God, I pray now for that person whose sex and sanity have been swallowed up by the brutal force that life can be. And I ask your forgiveness for being part of the generation with unclean lips and hard hearts. Thank You for turning the lights on for me, back then and again tonight – literally and figuratively. Shine Your light in dark places, and bring us out . . . especially those I love.