I’ve said before that I waken to the coming of spring here like someone who’s forgotten it exists.
This year, however, is different.
For some reason (and there are many), I’ve been sensitive to every wind since February that’s hinted at warmth. I herd the children outside on halcyon days between snowstorms. Every morning and evening, I greet our seedlings as if they were tiny children themselves. The earthy smell of peat moss, Y’s pencil sketches for our garden dreams, soul-enriching meetings that are beginning to pepper our calendar — all of these are inviting my winter-cropped self to stretch out well before its usual time.
God knew what He was about when He gave us seasons, I believe. Something about the sun’s shift in course and the hope in green sprouting leaves seems to be making me braver. I’m glad it is, because there are changes coming our way in service and in schooling that will require some courage. I know so little about the projects I want to — and must — take on, but a local gardening expert has given me a piercing piece of advice:
“When you’re starting seeds, you don’t want them to be straining toward a window, or else they’ll grow tall and leggy and weak. You want to keep them very close to the light.”
Without knowing it, her words are for me, for just such a season as this.
Here’s to not hurrying ahead of the Master Gardener, friends! And to keeping close to Him as He supplies what is needed for us to grow into our work.
Selected reads on spring and the surprises found outdoors
- Nicole T. Walters, A Voice in the Noise: New Life Requires Death
- BBC News via Ashlee Cowles: The Slow Death of Purposeless Walking
- Sarah Clarkson, Story Warren: The Gift of an Outdoor Soul
Earlier this month here
- Torn Between Two Voices – on writing
- This Mother is a Debtor Too – what my unkindness as a parent is revealing
- Tuesday at Ten O’Clock in a Waiting Room – a little story from urgent care
- The Blood-Bought Gift of Loneliness – a lonely bus ride, with God
- Good Friday and Easter, Retold (and Retold) – Easter in our home this year
On our tea table
- Numi’s Chocolate Rooibos Tea – delicious, and caffeine-free.
- Cinnamon-Raisin Bread – the girls loved all the steps of making this one: rolling out the dough, painting it with butter, sprinkling it with brown sugar and eating all the surplus raisins. We always prepare 150% of the recipe to make two loaves.
