Monday, January 16, 2023

Snow Melted, Sun Returned and Life Is Good

 All of WNC is waiting...the thrill of hope...of snow. 🎵Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow🎵 Our skies look like snow skies and the mist lying low upon the pastures, but no snow as of yet. Two of the three boys are with me, but they are napping and not too excited over the adventure of snow. The hotel opened last night and The Feral Fam has checked in. We are even letting KH in because he is looking not well and dang, even as heartless as he has been against so many of these ferals I have loved, I refuse to be heartless and let him suffer when he is feeling poorly or in winter. Summer, all bets are off of me not liking him or his antics of maim and hurt. This just in, light snow falling now. It's not sticking but lovely to see. Tiny little flakes but welcomed. 

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Snow update, still falling on Saturday morning and it looks as if we've received around 2 inches. Not getting above freezing today and the snow is supposed to end around noon. With our main road being resurfaced this year, it is difficult to know the new icy spots. I think there is one right in front of the house. Our neighbor with the snow plow moved so how our little road is, haven't a clue. We have a couple of snow shovels that we can clear our driveway with. With sunshine predicted in the afternoon chances are we won't have to shovel and that southern exposure will begin the melting process. 

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Once again the weekend has passed and we are welcomed by a beautiful sunrise on this Monday morning. Roy caught me up on the football game from last night while The Three chased each other in and out upstairs to downstairs and back. Willie gave us some concern over the weekend, but he seems to have bounced back from whatever was ailing him. When we went to church yesterday, we left them home alone, not behind the bonus room door. They did well. We were only gone through the Sunday School hour since January is my semi hibernating month for good health. 

We were in John 5 in Sunday School. A favorite chapter. With the iffiness of the weather, I wasn't too sure if many would brave the cold. Thankfully, others braved the temps so I wasn't alone in class. My teacher brain felt a little scattered yesterday but I think the lesson made sense. Years ago, Kelly F told me about a memoir of Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church. Spoiler, Barbara doesn't leave church but she works through the burnout and repetition of joyfully serving the Lord but she doesn't experience the joy. The story she tells of trying to help the birds that flew into glass or otherwise injured and her frustration of not being able to help them back to health until she had success with one. A starling no less. After several attempts for him to fly off back into bird world, from the atrium outside her office, she realizes taking him to a park for release is best. It is also how she saw her style of ministry and that she wasn't releasing people who had been helped by her, to live their lives outside of her realm of influence. Did she enjoy this aspect too much, keeping people too close for her influence. Thus, began her journey of finding where God wanted her and could be used the best with her talents and gifts. She is a professor at a small college and she has written several more books. Also, the young woman who used to call the church and trap people into hours long conversations. She just wanted to tell her story, she really didn't want help, well the way help was offered. She got unsuspecting church members to take her home only she didn't let them know right away, she really wanted to shop or see something. Then when pressed she'd say, I don't know how to get to my home, I forgot my address etc... There in John 5, Jesus approaches the man who has been lame or sick for thirty eight years and asks him, do you want to be well? The man explains why he can't be well cause he cannot get into the pool fast enough to be first. Interestingly, when Jesus tells him to rise, pick up your bed and walk...the man does as he is instructed and is instantly healed. By picking up his mat, Jesus is telling him, you're healed. You don't need to sit by this water anymore. We also looked at the crowd around him, sick, blind and lame. I am so encouraged by some of the ladies in our class. The range of things, bad backs, cancer, breathing issues, heart issues, stomach issues and more, they carry on. They do the work of the kingdom in the capabilities they are experiencing in this stage of life. After class some of us mentioned others in our church who hold fast, doing things for the Lord, without a whimper or a waller. As I face the future, I want to be like them, staying strong and forward focused.  This healing on the sabbath began the intensity of the Sanhedrin to follow Jesus' every move.  

Halfway through January, hibernation month for me. Thankful for a hubby that loves to grocery shop and convenient to do so cause where he works out is in the same shopping center as Publix.  Keeping a low profile has become much easier since keeping myself at home and entertained during the pandemic. Truthfully, I am never bored at home. I am thinking of starting the next project on the list, today. As most Mondays I do a reading of what the lesson on Sunday is about. Seems like Lifeway skips over a lot of really good Gospel of John stories. 

We have Willie's snip snip surgery on schedule and for this, I am thankful. This morning all three were asleep on the twin bed. Doesn't happen too often and as Willie looses his kitten fuzz, we don't think he is going to be big like his cuzbros. 




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