The feast outside my window announces spring is on its way.
Somehow the robins know to come. Somehow the berries are perfect for the picking. It happens about this time every year. Just as the daffodils begin to shoot their green spikes from the frozen ground and the quince offers up a few bright pink buds, the rhythm of the seasons proclaim, "It's time."
The winter is quiet and still. Shorter days and cold temperatures beckon a daily fire in the fireplace. Our firewood man, Raymond, claims that those who enjoy fires in their fireplaces are happier people. I marvel at his philosophical thinking.
Agatha Christie once said, "I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know, quite certainly, that just to be alive is a grand thing."
As we have quietly moved through the winter months of this pandemic, we could all claim some despair, some sorrow, some misery, but I would venture to guess all of us love being alive. It is a grand thing as the mystery writer states.
Maybe the waiting for vaccines and the waiting for the numbers to decline has forced us to quiet ourselves enough to get in touch with the rhythms of life:
Stillness and action-
listening and decision.
These, according to Richard Foster, are the rhythms of God. He says, "It is in the everyday and commonplace that we learn patience, acceptance, and contentment." And so we look to nature or a crackling fire for our direction. We find assurance in a starry night or we comfort a friend who needs a listening ear. Everyday and commonplace occurrences - unique for each one and made available by the beating heart of God.
We must ask ourselves if we have learned anything during the recent months of winter quiet. Have we allowed ourselves to practice stillness? Have we waited to take action? Have we become a better listener and less hasty in our decision-making?
Are we more patient, accepting, and content?
Someone once said peace comes when we live in harmony with the rhythms of life, and joy comes when we catch the rhythm of God's heart.
