Longing for Spring
Last week I was longing for spring as I battled a cold north wind and frigid temperatures all day. This week, warmer temperatures, and more high winds – this time out of the southwest – leave me longing for summer. In the Texas Panhandle, it is often still cold through the end of February, but this year spring seems to have arrived a few weeks early bringing warmer temperatures, high wind, and blowing dirt.
Spring in the Texas Panhandle is rarely idyllic. Most of the time, it feels like a windy battle between winter and summer as the wind blows first from the north and then from the south. If we are lucky enough to get rain, it is often accompanied by thunderstorms, more high wind, hail, and sometimes tornados. The temperatures bounce from warm to cold and back again until they finally settle on hot.
So much of the time, I find myself longing to be someplace other than where I am today. I’m often looking ahead, longing for another season. But today, as I listen to the whistling winds, I am reminded of another windy day many years ago. So, I go searching through my computer until I find an old post and some encouragement from my past.
Looking Back
A strong wind whistles around my porch and through my kitchen window. Although it is March, the early morning wind is cold, and spring has not yet officially arrived. Bare trees bow to the passing of the wind which carries the smell of damp earth, and the first real smell of spring. I lean in closer to the window chilling my bare arms and filling my lungs. The sensible thing to do would be to close the window, but my childish impulse is to stick my face right up to the screen and fill my lungs with the scents of the season and my heart with a longing that stirs in my soul at the first signs of spring. I long to drop my dishtowel, and oblivious to all obligations, run and dance with the wind; l long to throw wide my arms and embrace the day and let the wind tousle my hair and sting my eyes and play about me as I wander down gravel lanes and dusty roads.
Many people complain about the wind, and at times, I do too. But although it can be annoying, there are times I love the wind, especially when it gently rocks the prairie. If you live in the Texas Panhandle, you either love or tolerate the wind, or you spend most of your time indoors and miserable.
*Bloom where you are planted. It is an old saying, but very true. We must love the things around us so our spirits will bloom. Is it possible to learn to love the things that our very nature dislikes? I think perhaps we can when we dwell on beauty and blessings rather than grumble at the things we are powerless to change. When I have a grateful heart, my inner spirit is continually refilled with joy, and I stand in awe at the love and power of God.
It is this refilling of our own heart that offers an overflow into the lives of others. Whether it is our children, our spouse, our co-workers, or whomever God has placed in our lives, we cannot give what we do not have. How can I give joy and peace when my own heart is discontent?
Contentment in Windy Days
While we may be annoyed by the winds, winds usually usher in change. Like the wind, sometimes change can be turbulent with tears and pain, but most of the time change is slow, gentle, growing. Today as I look back for encouragement, I add my present thoughts to my prayer from the past that closed that long ago post.
Lord, please help me to bloom in the soil where you’ve allowed me to grow, and as my face lifts heavenward, let my children and others follow my gaze and see your glory.
And today I add:
Father, as the seasons change around us and within us, help us to find contentment in the moment as we pause and give you praise for windy days and changing seasons.
The excerpt above was written in 2010.
*Some sources credit Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) with the quote “bloom where you are planted” while others credit Mary Engelbreit who made the phrase popular.