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Apr. 20, 2007
Spring at Pondhaven
How do you know when it is spring? Oh, I don't mean when does the calendar indicate spring is officially here. Rather, what speaks spring to your spirit?
For me, it is a sense that begins creeping in around mid-February. A few days of late winter sunshine and I get the gardening bug. As the days progress, sliding in and out of rain, wind, sunshine, and widely varying temperatures, my heart longs to be outdoors in the soil and fresh air.
Before I know it, every time I travel through town I am greeted by the cheerful, carefree, bobbing yellow branches of forsythia bushes. Soon to follow are an assortment of flowering fruit trees, and of course the sweet scent of lilacs.
Have you ever planted bulbs in January? The ones I purchased last fall as a first step to landscaping our new place should have gone in the ground in October. However, life's little interruptions were in full swing, and it was December before I got started. Several sessions reaching into early March, including some where I was chipping away at frozen dirt, and I could finally say I was finished. But would anything come of it? They were planted under such adverse conditions. How exciting when the first spears began pushing through the earth, and what a thrill when blossoms appeared!
Now that spring is "officially" here, I have relished the opportunity to be outside, soaking it all in. Last year, we heaped soil in two long beds, planted everything I could think of, then left it all to the mercies of the irrigation system while we went on a 5 week whirlwind tour of the U.S. This year, my husband blessed me with the raised-bed garden of my dreams. We've spent weeks deepening the pond, hauling railroad ties, setting up the boxes, filling them with the dirt from the pond, augmenting, fertilizing, and planting. The result is not just a functional garden, but what will develop into a truly beautiful and restful place to work or relax.
During that process, God's blessing has taken my breath away! Hearing the songbirds, being immersed in the glow of the sunset, dazzled by the intensity of the rainbow. Then one day the mallards returned. There was no water yet at Pondhaven, but still they came, the drake and the female, gracefully alighting in the pond bed. Soon after, they lifted off, circled around the house, and were gone. They will be back soon.
I asked my son the same question, "How do you know when it is spring?" Without hesitation he joyfully replied, "When the pond starts filling!"
Spring came to Pondhaven today.
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Thank You, Lord Jesus, for new life each spring. Thank You that, even as You designed the world around me to reawaken, I am called to reawaken in You.
Thank You for the labors of my family. Thank You for all the days to come, as my children grow, launch out on their own, and for each return visit. Thank You that they will see the result of their travail, remember the work we did together, and be blessed. May this home always be a haven to all who pass our way.
Amen |
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