Is anyone out there as excited, giddy and emotional about today as I am?!
What an amazing day.
Amen.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Angel
An angel crossed my path today. I got too smart when I was driving down our icy road today and got stuck in the deep snow on the shoulder. While I was struggling to get the vehicle out, an older man, a stranger to me, noticed my plight and stopped to help. After pushing and pulling and a trip to a neighbor's for a shovel and a bit of added gravel for good measure, we got the old van out. I barely got his name as he turned to walk back to his truck and then I was on my way.
We are blessed to live in such a place and among such generous neighbors. I hope I'll have the opportunity to pass it on.
We are blessed to live in such a place and among such generous neighbors. I hope I'll have the opportunity to pass it on.
Growing Up
In my "about me" statement, I noted that I am "still waiting to feel like a grown-up." As of today, the waiting is over.
Today I watched a 47 year old man take the reins as the "leader of the free world." As a 47 year old myself, I think the willingness to take on that level of responsibility qualifies as being a grown-up.
What qualifies a person as being considered responsible? It is a willingness to put yourself second to the needs of others. It is doing things you don't feel like doing simply because they need to get done. It is being someone that others can rely on, being there when you say you will be. It is the doing of things for their own sake, and not for any ultimate benefit you may receive. It is the "putting away of childish things."
I was mulling this over while I was raking up sheep poop this afternoon. I was thinking about the gradual transformation some of us go through as we change from carefree 20-somethings to responsible 40-somethings. You don't even know it is happening until it's already happened. One day you realize that you haven't lounged in bed for years, that you read books by the pages rather than the chapters, that playing with your friends has taken a back seat to taking a family member to a doctor's appointment. Some of it you miss. Some of it you wonder why you ever wasted so much time. Moments of freedom are precious and few.
The funny thing is...I like this other way of being. I like being needed, of needing to take care of others. I like helping where and when I can. Yes, I even like raking sheep poop (most days).
But I must be honest...I don't fit the reponsibility bill on the "benefit" side. There are lots of benefits, realized and hidden, to being responsible. The most important? The wonderful feeling you get for showing up. It's schmaltzy, I know, but the biggest gift you can give yourself is giving of yourself.
Perhaps I've been confused about being grown-up. Seems I've been a grown-up all along.
Today I watched a 47 year old man take the reins as the "leader of the free world." As a 47 year old myself, I think the willingness to take on that level of responsibility qualifies as being a grown-up.
What qualifies a person as being considered responsible? It is a willingness to put yourself second to the needs of others. It is doing things you don't feel like doing simply because they need to get done. It is being someone that others can rely on, being there when you say you will be. It is the doing of things for their own sake, and not for any ultimate benefit you may receive. It is the "putting away of childish things."
I was mulling this over while I was raking up sheep poop this afternoon. I was thinking about the gradual transformation some of us go through as we change from carefree 20-somethings to responsible 40-somethings. You don't even know it is happening until it's already happened. One day you realize that you haven't lounged in bed for years, that you read books by the pages rather than the chapters, that playing with your friends has taken a back seat to taking a family member to a doctor's appointment. Some of it you miss. Some of it you wonder why you ever wasted so much time. Moments of freedom are precious and few.
The funny thing is...I like this other way of being. I like being needed, of needing to take care of others. I like helping where and when I can. Yes, I even like raking sheep poop (most days).
But I must be honest...I don't fit the reponsibility bill on the "benefit" side. There are lots of benefits, realized and hidden, to being responsible. The most important? The wonderful feeling you get for showing up. It's schmaltzy, I know, but the biggest gift you can give yourself is giving of yourself.
Perhaps I've been confused about being grown-up. Seems I've been a grown-up all along.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Warming
I am one of those crazy individuals who hopes to live in a Currier and Ives Christmas card from Thanksgiving to Easter. I love the snow. I love the squeak of it underfoot, the shush of it as it falls, the silence it creates as it absorbs other ambient sounds, the amazing whiteness of it, and the sheer wonder of the perfect individual flakes. I love the way snow makes everything look better...compost piles turn into mini moguls, fence posts into mushrooms, trees into icing confections. All harsh edges are erased and flaws obscured.
Here in Northwest Montana we have enjoyed a long spell of particularly snowy weather. A series of muscular storms covered our little farm with a think blanket of fluffy snow, deep enough to make doing chores a chore, but not so deep that we were housebound. With nearly three feet on the ground and even deeper drifts, I have been in heaven.
And yet my white heaven has turned to hell in just 24 short hours with the arrival of a warming trend that has swirled its way out of Oregon and Washington and turned my winter wonderland into an ugly, slushy mess. Shallow pools of melted snow sit over frozen ground and the sheep's winter quarters have turned into a soupy, poopy mess. Poor babies, they can't seem to find a dry spot unless they lay in their spent hay.
One bright spot in the morass is that it will help with our nearly impassable road (the UPS man got stuck yesterday and uttered a VERY bad word which I heard from nearly 1/4 mile away) and allow us to pick up a load of hay from a local farmer. That should make the sheeps happy.
But as an eternal optomist, I know it will snow again, and the ugliness exposed by the warmth will once again be shrouded in soft, rounded whiteness and I will sigh, happy.
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