I’ve wrecked my car 3 times in the past 6 months. In my own driveway. Twice I hit one car with the other and once I knocked over a brick retaining wall. All because I can’t get my mind on what I’m doing.
I can’t remember things anymore either. I miss appointments all the time, even when I write them down because I forget to look at my calendar.
I forget birthdays. I forget prescriptions. I forget the laundry in the washer. Forget to cook dinner. Or even grocery shop for that matter.
I forget to record that odd check I wrote too… that’s always fun.
A few weeks ago, I forgot my dog in the car for a good part of the day. Thank God it was cool outside and he was ok.
If ever there were a woman in need of rest, it is me. The past two years have been filled with stressful events and it has taken a mighty toll on my soul. The woman who used to juggle all-the-things with productivity to spare now measures any day that includes a shower as a good day.
I’m not sure where my old self went. We even uprooted our family and moved 4 states away and I still can’t quite find her. I think she’s gone and someone new is taking her place.
Someone humbled. Someone less invested in this world. Someone slowly relenting.
Our new home in our new town has the most beautiful trees. I’ve never seen fall like this before, brilliant oaks and maples encircle our yard like a warm city wall. Orange and gold carpet the lawn as far as I can see. And each time the wind blows, more leaves drift down like autumn butterflies and rest quietly on the ground.
It’s like they’ve relented too.
Seasons change. Spring grows. Summer abounds. Fall, however, is expected to yield her harvest to the Sower and make way for winter’s good rest.
The leaves are much more at peace with this process than I am. It’s hard to watch beautiful things fade. It’s hard to give up the red maple wonder of a season to the million little deaths that mark it’s end. I know that winter rest brings spring growth, and we all need that time. But I don’t rest. I mourn the leaves when the leaves don’t mourn themselves.
Instead, the leaves trust that this season is their natural state. This place is where they belong. They know that only when they fall and crumble to the earth can the Sower make them into something new.
The glorious, the brilliant, the withered - even the moth-eaten - He washes them all, one by one, with cool living water. And dries them with the breath of life.
So these things are not lost, my friend. In the palm of His hand, they become the very things that make the good soil.
So these things are not lost, my friend. In the palm of His hand, they become the very things that make the good soil.
But some seeds fell into good soil - soft, moist,
free from thorns. These seeds not only grew,
but they also produced more seeds, a hundred
times what the farmer originally planted.
If you have ears, hear My meaning. -Luke 8:8
A special thank you to The Boy who helped me write this. He has quite a way with words...
