Skip to main content

Friends

Life is built on seasons.  We're in the one of lingering autumn and early winter.  Our days are short, the frequent winds have just about blown off all the colored leaves.  The skies are filled with gray all day and every once in awhile raindrops fall and pour in torrents.  In these moody days of nature, I have found again the warmth of friends and kindness.

Yesterday, I packed up cookies.  I carefully arranged some on the snowman tray and others in the Christmas boxes.  I sealed them up with cheery bows and cards.  Then I went across the street, right next door, and to the corner to deliver my goods to each neighbor.  It was fun to catch up on each one's news.  I realized again the blessing of having such fine neighbors in our lives.  It's a simple thing to take the time, but when I do, I come away thankful and full of joy for relationships in my life.

I'm reminded of my Mom when I do those actions.  I remember well how she would make her cookie boxes.  She would use the empty Christmas card boxes, line them all with foil, and pack them full of with a variety of cookies.  She sealed them up with Saran wrap, then tie them up with ribbon, and deliver them to our neighbors around us.  I'm thankful that she portrayed for me the blessing of reaching out to others.

As I count the blessings of my friends, I realize that friendships tend to go in seasons.  There are times when we have those friends because we work in the same place or go to school together or live by one another.  But because of changes in our lives,  those friendships change.  They sometimes hibernate, sometimes linger as a memory, and may even seem to fade.  Yet, if it's just a card, a phone call, or getting together for lunch, the friendship thrives again, just like the early Spring.

So I am especially grateful this wintry day for an opportunity to celebrate my former mentor and colleague.  I'm attending her birthday celebration and wouldn't miss it for the world!  I know I'll come across other friends I haven't seen in years, and I am looking forward to our time of reminiscing and catching up.  I'm grateful that God has given us seasons to cultivate relationships and friends.  We never know how long we'll be at a certain place or in a particular time.  Yet, while we're there, we need to reach out, plant seeds of kindness, and grow our friendships with one another.  We may even find that our greater blessing of those friendships grown may be revealed in the darker seasons of our life.  And there's nothing like the beauty of fresh fallen snow on the mountains!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But . . .

  I had to pause for a moment, as I began reading the text this early morning.  But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly:  they became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments."  (Nehemiah 9:18).    How often do I find myself verbalizing "but? what about? what then? what if? really?" All the phrases that feed doubt and angst into my life are found in that one conjunction.  Memory stands as the faithful argument against it, but when faced with future days all seems easily forgotten.  This verse comes to a people who had returned to their homeland after being ravaged and exiled by foreign powers.  Nehemiah is reminding them of who they are, and especially of their one and only God who has forever been faithful to them despite  their faithlessness and wrongdoing.  He reminds them how God is a God of forgiveness, slow to anger, longsuffering, overflowing with lovingkindness, never forsaking them even when He was totally forgott...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Breeze

  Gypsy Rose immediately prances to the back door as she hears her name.  We are ready for our morning walk, which has started later than usual, since I have some of these summer days off.  But it is still early enough to catch the morning breeze.  Walking south, I am refreshed by feeling the gentle wind all around me, it's a cool wrap in contrast to the summer sun.  But it all seems to disappear as I turn the corner and head west, my summer breeze is gone.  I am at a loss for it even as I continue north and east.  It's only as I begin the southern sidewalks back home that I am met with the blissful breeze.  I realize that though I wasn't feeling it for most of my steps, it was there all along, I just had to turn the right direction to get relief . . .  Sometimes, that is how my relationship with God seems.  Yes, I know He is ever near and is with me, but I don't feel that fact.  Sometimes my prayers seem to be in a vacuum, and I'm ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brief Moments of Grace

  "But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place,  that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a  little reviving in our bondage." (Ezra 9:8)   Summer welcomes me today with a cloudy cool morning and a subtle fresh breeze.  The day is probably teasing me with moderate temperatures before it will launch into more robust sunlight and heat.  The scorching temperatures have given an abundance of tomatoes, bush beans and yellow squash in my garden, while tormenting the kale, cilantro, spinach and herbs.  My refreshment is found swimming laps in the pool and teaching or rather reminding Gypsy Rose to stay in her lane while we swim together.  Days seem to run together, slip away too fast, as I often feel locked in a routine of sleep, work, cook, repeat. I know that I need to pause and reflect, because even in that daily ritual are God's brief moments of gr...
Post a Comment
Read more