Grey Skies are Gonna Clear Up

In case you haven't figured it out, life just isn't fair sometimes. We don't get what we deserve sometimes and sometimes we do. And sometimes that's a good thing. And other times it's not. In talking with a friend this weekend I commented on how we must focus on what we do have rather than what we don't have. When we have a lot of good things in front of us to focus on its much easier to focus on that. But in moments of stillness, that which we don't have becomes more prominent. It fills up the window we are looking through making it impossible to see what we have to be thankful for. 

Driving down the road today through the neighborhood I couldn't help but notice how vibrant the colors were. Reds were a little deeper. Yellows a little brighter. And, in the waning hours of daylight the colors left the trees and moved to the horizon. As I topped a hill where I could see better over the trees I could see the colors bleed across the sky into eternity.

I came home to a lawn blanketed by a layer of leaves that were not the pretty reds and yellows. Instead there was a carpet of dirty brown as the life and color leached out of what was once quite beautiful. It was then that I came to the realization that I am in the Fall of my life. The color is fading. What was once filled with beauty is now covered with scars of pain and grief. 

Beneath the dirty brown leaves life continues. But all that is alive is now below the surface searching for what once was. The nourishment that's been missing for the last five months. Fortunately the roots of life go deep. The life is not over, I've just come to a new season. And winter isn't far behind. 

Winter. Although it doesn't happen here in South Mississippi very often, a few inches of snow can cover the brown with a false sense of clean. A beautiful blanket of white that, if thick enough, covers the dirty brown completely. But it's only a momentary beauty. The ugly remains a warm spell away. 

But I haven't given up hope. I know that there are plans for me. I know that there are people to reach out to. People for me to help heal. And people to help heal me. 

Fall will be painful and winter will only serve as a reminder that I no longer have anyone here to help keep me warm. 

But I've got news for you. Spring is coming.