It is springtime here, and we are in the beginning of a lovely spring snow today. The critter, here, showed up a few days ago just outside of our front yard. It was also seen yesterday by others just up the road. The snow is deeper now, and we are expected to get up to 8 inches today. Having all this soft beauty sure makes impatience for spring greenery subside, at least till the next thaw time. And none of us will complain about the water the snows will provide to the streams, come spring and summer. Well, I guess too much at once would not be an easy way to go, but it is a natural rhythm here. Better to realize that than change it for convenience sake, I think.
Last evening Josh came over for dinner and it was lovely, but we had a humbling experience when we discovered no water from the tap! We were all thinking something wrong with the well, jumping to the most horrendous cause in our minds. It turned out, a toilet had been running awhile and had drained the lines. Once that was resolved, within minutes all was back to normal, all of us appreciating our well water's abundance that much more for it's momentary absence. We watched the last episode of Northern Exposure after that, the one fairly brimming with community love and awareness of decisions that reach out globally.
It got me thinking, about my own cultural upbringing. The tendency to jump to preparation for the worst thinkable problems, when they may never manifest; the idea that you have to be smarter than what comes along or that the world is basically a trap to snare the unwary. My present conscious thought flys in the face of this, yet the form I was raised in keeps coming up, asking to be renewed each time. Maybe this is how true change comes.... with many practices.
Reformation. I remember that word from my Lutheran catechism classes. Funny, my church was born from discontent with the status quo, of brave people willing to risk all to find a better way to be. After many years of their hard won independence, they were fighting off stagnation from familiarity. I was one of the folks who sought other expressions of my faith. My little home town church has renewed itself over the years with a new population of families, with just a few people that I knew in my youth, still there. Living things are good when circulation is freshened. Change of what is familiar can be a very good thing.
My life has really undergone some changes since I last wrote. My time and energy are consumed for the most part with my daily work, and I wonder at times if that is a good thing. I keep repeating my efforts at balance in my life, of creativity and service. I am still practicing at that. I've not yet perfected it.
As I write, I'm watching the snow swirl outside, the juncos dancing along the railings, kicking
the crushed sunflower and nyger seeds from under the snow, the crossbills and chickadees jockeying for position on the birdfeeders. As I often do, I ponder what I might glean for my own soul from what I see out there. Persistance? Community? Doing what you are born to do?And then, as my recent teacher said, sometimes the sound of rain simply means that its raining.
