If I were to ask you to complete the sentence:
April showers…
I suspect most would utter “bring May flowers”
quicker than I could open an umbrella.
This familiar litany came to mind on Saturday
as I puttered around the backyard.
Year after year, one season evaporates into the next.
The saying promises the necessity of rain bringing forth
long-awaited flowers.
I wonder if I tend to perpetually live getting ready for the next
season.
In some cases perhaps I am recovering from a previous one as well.
What about today?
What about this current season?
Take a stroll with me through my Saturday.
Let’s see if we can determine
to live fixed in the present season while anticipating the one yet
to be unearthed.
What do I miss when I attempt to live beyond where I reside?
Our back yard is lined with camellia trees.
This year the trees are exploding with hot pink, pink, pale pink and white
flowers.
When I am task oriented, the trees represent weeks of filling compost
bags with heavy rain-soaked blossoms.
If I am present, I look up and see a sky that has been crowded out by the
watercolors of branches.
I don’t picture a rake to clear my way
but a path of pink snow petals rising up
to cushion my steps.
Oh and all the debris that lands on my side of the fence
from another yard…
I remind myself that my life overlaps with others.
It is the business of life to deal with one another’s stuff.
We can carry each other’s burdens.
Come empty with the promise
of being filled.
Pull weeds that survived winter,
dig in the spring soil
breaking up hard places
to receive seeds that will shout
glory throughout summer and fall.
Each appointed season contained in one plot of earth.
Don’t be afraid to get dirty
and pick the right tools.
Recording Psalms…
sows strength for today…
harvesting absolute comfort for tomorrow.
A mid-afternoon game instead of
creating a wedge in the day gives
reason to celebrate once again
that this is the day that the Lord has made.
I will rejoice in season and out of season.
This is the day that the Lord has made,
I will rejoice and be present in it.
How are you being firmly planted in
this season?
