Happy Easter Friends

Easter Sunday this year is falling at a time of so much change. So much new life.
The month is changing, the season is changing, and I am changing.

Are you?
Are you in any kind of metamorphosis right now, any kind of renewal?
More than ever I think, things are really truly changing.
I hope you are sensing it, and I hope it is all beautiful and exciting.

When I reflect on the Christian importance of this weekend, 

what my mind most often drifts to is redemption. 

We have been redeemed from our sins by our Savior. 

We have been traded. Purchased. Protected from darkness and storms

and even from ourselves for a while, 

our debts relieved and our futures bright and open with loving possibility.

 From a million years ago, one of our homemade Easter rituals, commemorating the Passover night.

This is so in step with how I have been trying to manage my own life lately, 

just the word redemption.

For what different things in this world am I redeeming my precious time and energy? 

Spiritually speaking, the question becomes even more challenging.

What trades am I making? What contracts are written with my free will,

after such a costly redemption?

It's plenty to think about, but it doesn't make me sad anymore.

Life is so throbbing with energy right now that I am only motivated, revived, 

and hopeful for the possibility of everything good and amazing!

Break your dormancy, friends.

Erupt through the soil, nourished by invisible things and sparked back to life,

filled with all the life force you need

to grow into your fullest, most beautiful, most useful potential.

Face the sun.

Accept every kind of weather.

Stretch your roots deeply and enjoy the company of bugs and worms.

It's going to be a season for the record books, and I wish you the best of it all. 

Happy Easter!

xoxoxoxo

Thank You Puxatony Phil!!!!!!!!

   Well, friends, it's official! It's almost spring. The wizened groundhog did NOT see his truth telling shadow this morning,

"So ye faithful there is no shadow to see,

an early spring for you and me!"

   So we do NOT have to brace ourselves for six more weeks of winter! We may have as few as two weeks before the cold, dry months are behind us, and this girl could NOT be happier about it!!!

   On that note, by the way, the Farmer's Almanac predicts a drought recovery for our little slice of paradise, so DOUBLE wahoo!!

This year I crave to fill every one of my thousands of weird containers 

with tens of thousands of beautiful plants, careless about formality. 

This year I am embracing Dee's phrase,

"English with an Oklahoma accent!"

   As if to cement the prediction, here is our central Oklahoma forecast for this coming week:

   Gorgeous, right?? Those nighttime temps are barely chilly enough to justify the house heater, so I am looking forward to opening every window, airing out these flu-ish germ clouds, and sanitizing our cave with sunshine. I want to force fruit tree branches indoors, too, being a firm believer that fresh foliage purifies the air and lifts the spirits! Nothing to aid the flu there.

   And the daytime temps??  My goodness... Swoon worthy... I have five dirt manicures scheduled this week, one for every weekday. I'm super excited to finish off the raised vegetable beds with layers of organic matter, excited to scrape up some manure from the middle fields and wait for the rains (this is he recipe for GREEN fields), excited to start seeds in the dining room in anticipation of planting week.

Do you remember last year when we built these garden boxes 

from lumber reclaimed form the kids' playhouse?

They still stand, all four of them, and the fodder from last summer's bounty has been 

melding and leveling all winter long.

Just a few wheelbarrow loads of manure 

and a quick stir with a pitchfork will have them ready to plant!

These colorful zinnias were grown from seed last year, 

and around Thanksgiving I collected THEIR seeds, about tenfold.

The garden this year will be OVERFLOWING with zinnias!

P.S. the chickens love 'em.

I have mixed feelings about this.

   Honestly, this is so flipping exciting, it's like someone called and said, "Hey guess what? Christmas is six weeks early this year, so get ready!!"

   Nope, it's way better than that. It's like someone said, "Hey guess what you get two birthdays this year!! AND vacation is extra long AND Christmas comes early and lasts late!"

   It feels like I won the bowling championship of the UNIVERSE. My cousin Jen knows how this feels.

   Spring is beautiful to me in every sense, from the physical and sensual to the philosophical and spiritual.

   New life, renewal, vibrancy, color, energy, texture, redemption... All this dormancy and waiting is on the verge of paying off. We're all about to redeem our wintry patience for vernal abundance!! Tears sown in grief will soon be blooming.

   I have no doubt.

Just hang on.

   Happy early Spring, you fine people!! Please tell me what yo're planning and planting. This is EASILY the most hardworking and thrilling time of year for me, so I can't wait to shake off this annoying fly and dive in! I even have new rubber boots and canvas gloves. Wahoo!!

"Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear
that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments,
not the composer."
~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth
xoxoxoxo

40 Days Till Easter

   Springtime is high season for me. This is when everything greens up and things start to bloom. This is when the house is cleanest and my mind freshest. My birthday rolls around. And Easter approaches. I love Easter even more than Christmas, for a million reasons. Do you?

   Easter is when promises are kept. Easter is the fulfillment of hope and the answer to hard wrought prayers. It is a wonderful time for healing and forgiveness. It is the time of every single year of life that we can celebrate the light that follows darkness. Without fail, and independent of anything we do, springtime warms us up and gets our hearts thumping again. And Easter is the culmination of all the waiting, all the spiritual dormancy, all the deadness.

   This year I want to be ready. In yet another bizarre way, God is whispering to my heart a hidden meaning behind our childlessness... that I should be redeeming my time more wisely, not just filling it up. Not just comforting myself or wishing the weeks away. The hours that might otherwise be spent on coloring eggs and shopping for frothy Easter dresses can be spent studying the Word and preparing my heart for miracles.

"God is eagerly waiting for the chance 

to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, 

just as He always has. 

But He can't do it if you don't pray, 

and He can't do it if you don't dream. 

In short, He can't do it if you don't believe."

~ Jeffrey R. Holland 

   I am not sure I agree with Mr. Holland's word choice here, saying that there's anything God can't do, but I certainly agree and believe that the Lord wants a relationship with each of us, privately and permanently and apart from worldly tethers, and so we need to seek Him. That's our part. Praying, dreaming, hoping, trusting, believing in His goodness above all else, far beyond pain. And in doing so we are assured that He will be there with strong, capable, powerful, merciful, loving open arms.

   And by the way, YES. God has already answered so many big, incredible prayers for us! Why would I ever stop believing in Him? So many dreams are already fulfilled, I get chills to reflect on where we are in life, on how much love already surrounds us. These yet unanswered longings, these fears which remain, are only scabbed over by my own limitations. He has the power to heal all of it, to work miracles I cannot even imagine! Same goes for you and your heart, whatever it is that you're hoping for or against, He already knows.

   As late winter stretches and yawns herself into the dawn of another springtime, the life giving tremors of Easter are very real to me. Regret over wasted time and spiritual deadness is finally evaporating under the warmth of hope. The busy-keeping activity of recent months, trying to work away pain and over and over again struggling to make sense of things in my own weak ways, is being replaced with a craving for spiritual activity, seeking what He wants me to seek and discovering His power again.

"Let the past sleep, but let it sleep 

on the bosom of Christ, and go out into 

the irresistible future with Him."

~Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest

   Lest we get too awfully serious this morning, below is a photo of Tomato the rooster. You know, spring chickens and all. He was only a few weeks old when this photo was taken, and my nephew Zane (well, Zane is *sort of* my nephew, and I love him so much) named him not knowing this feathery creature's gender. I think it's a perfect name. You may notice that Tomato got a bright red talon polishing that day, too, which may or may not have affected his personality in the long run. That was two years ago.   

   Nowadays Tomato runs free and wild when the sun is out. His rooster comb is a little wonky, which helps me tell him apart from the others. This is good because his full grown talons have lost their red glamour and we have several white and black roosters. Tomato can be a trouble maker, but we think he's cool.

   However you observe Ash Wednesday, whatever your rituals are for preparing for Easter, springtime, or just another fresh new day of being alive, I wish you the very best. I wish you a long, wide view of the world, a closeness to Love,  and renewed hope for the biggest miracles you crave! Paint your talons red if it thrills you, and be happy. You are loved, and big things are waiting.

"I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."

~Psalm 34:4

xoxoxo