Good -bye to Winter

Spring is coming. Our driveway is drowning in water from melted snow that has no place to go. The yard is full of stinking rotting leaves that didn't make it to the burn pile last fall. The dogs are tracking in mud and water that's sitting on top of the frozen ground, and their winter deposits are all visible and ugly. The melting snow has revealed brown vegetation, mud, litter, and other junk from winter.


The world is brown and grey instead of pure shimmering white. Gone is the fresh crisp air, replaced by the dank smell of uncovered rotting tree droppings. In the brown-and-gray world the trees look dead and pathetic, rather than majestic sleeping giants rising out of the snow.


Soon of course the leaves will fill the trees and the world will be green again, and the heat will start. The awful suffocating heat. And with it, those days or weeks of humidity that choke my breath as they assault my body. There is no getting away from them, no "cooling blankets", no cozyness. We just somehow get through it the best we can until the magnificent coloring trees and gentle coolness once again bring relief.


One of the few things that I like about summer: The early mornings when the sky is the brightest blue as a striking contrast to the vibrant greens of the trees, with bright yellow sunlight streaming through. And the occasional cooler, breezy day the brings blessed respite and a sense of "maybe this isn't so bad after all" that lasts until the next hot and humid day smacks me back down to size again. These are the gifts God gives me to remind me that He is still here, and the world is still His!