Cosmic 2x4's

Spring is here! Truly. It’s warm, the grass is green, and the trees and flowers are in full bloom. Possibilities seem endless. So much to do. I have to remind myself to hop off fast forward and sit and soak in the beauty and promise that seems to lie endlessly before me.

House projects – inside and out. I want everything to look beautiful. Me – inside and out. Exercising regularly again, eating for energy (a whole new concept for me). Traveling to see friends and loved ones. A trip to New Orleans next week. A camping trip to the Smokies in June. My beloved Higgins Lake in July.

Life is good. We are still nurturing and loving Holly – whose terminal illness is a reminder of the cycle of life. Can’t get too caught up in Spring without the realization that life is cyclical, a helix of seasons we move through, return to, sometimes wiser, sometimes back around for a similar lesson.

God provides lots of cosmic 2x4’s. Whether or not we get it and take each whack or wake-up as a possibility for growth, well that’s a whole other question. So, I’m trying to embrace Holly’s story and appreciate the fullness she brings to our life. Though her life is in its winter she will always represent for me the invincibility of Spring.

She is here to teach me to appreciate all of life. She gave me Jeff and her love and loyalty for the last nine years. My job now is to ease her transition while facing my own fears of death. It’s a big ole’ cosmic 2x4. I’m trying to stay open. To embrace each day with its inherent hope. Another morning with Holly. My kids are awake and happy (relatively speaking!). The sun is shining and the outdoors is beckoning.

I am more aware than ever of our connectedness and the beauty of life in each of its stages. From my children to my generation to my mom’s generation to Holly, I see a rainbow of life in all of its stages. Each color and place beautiful on its own but all together creating something magnificent and larger than its individual parts. Such is life. The seemingly simple of our every, ordinary days and the immensity of life in all its seasons and colors.

To embracing those seasons and colors. Living today to its fullest. Learning our lessons. Growing – deeper, higher, stronger.

Give me rich soil, warm sun, cleansing rain. I’ll give you a perfect rose. Yes. Spring is here.