Sunday Afternoon Tea

When the night has been too lonely

And the road has been too long...

Just remember in the winter

Far beneath the bitter snow

Lies the seed

That with the sun's love, in the spring

Becomes the rose.

As a rose beneath the snow... those words bring an image to my mind of hope and faith and grace?   My husband heard this song (The Rose) as I was testing the music on my Play List where it now enjoys second place.  He just said, "Good theology".   Yes... some of the deepest Truths can be found where least expected.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, having realized long ago that writing down what I wish to accomplish the first day of the year... much like a small child's wish list for Kris Kringle... did not usually result in actually doing them.  Wanting is not the same as doing or being no matter how determined I find myself when writing out goals.  Instead of just writing... I ponder (which probably does not surprise you).

As I've grown older and perhaps a little wiser... or is it just more realistic... I find myself in the first week of the new year thinking through and pondering what I have been doing that leads to the good life and what needs to change.  Most often having to do with more quiet times and the eating of colorful and healthy veggies... less cheeseburgers and mindless television shows.

The first week in January has become my time for mid-course corrections.  I think of who I want to be and how to get there by the books I want to read, media watched (or not viewed), things I want to do and places I want to see, ways to stay in touch with family and friends, additions and changes to the garden, new recipes, etc.

For there is something about this time of year that makes me more willing to make additions and subtractions... not so much in say... July.  The year awaits like the first page of a brand new journal with white pages and a colorful pen and lots of hope.

Oh, I know we take with us the same challenges into the new year as we have the same chronic illnesses, bank balance, difficult relationships, and the other stuff of life.  But there's nothing saying we can't look at them in a new way and with deeper faith in the One Who Created Us.  There is another line in that song which goes...

It's the heart, afraid of breaking

That never learns to dance

It's the dream, afraid of waking

That never takes the chance

It's the one who won't be taken

Who cannot seem to give

And the soul, afraid of dying

That never learns to live 

I want to take chances with people, knowing some will be difficult and hurtful.  I want to dance even if it means falling down.  I want to take chances even if it means making a wrong choice once in awhile.  My natural inclination is to hide under the covers when the winds of adversity blow or people are not kind.

I want to drive even when the weather is bad and pay too much for a Starbucks coffee once in awhile and take a little extra insulin for a piece of favorite pie and make a good friend and have tea parties and read great books and light scented candles and make soup and knead bread and walk the path I feel God has given... even if it not what the World would consider success.

Somewhere deep within is a rose just waiting to bloom.  :)