Ridin' the Storm Out

Waitin' for the thaw-out.

"Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun
of York."

That line has been running through my head over and over the past month or so.
Winter is for me a time of discontent. I struggle to find beauty in this dead season.
The fields are ugly, the trees are bare and it's COOOOLD! Bone- chillingly cold.

I think Shakespeare hated winter too. Unlike Richard III, however, it seems as if no sun appears here to warm the bones and gladden the heart.

I walked in Graham Park today. The sunlight glittered off the snow-covered trees, lending a pristine covering to their naked limbs. The cold clear air refreshed me as I walked and my mind wandered.

Mother died two years ago today. My far-away family remembered her and missed her in their FaceBook posts and I was taken back to the scene around her bedside. It was a day much like today. It was cold and snowy in Lee County, Arkansas. The biggest ice storm ever was pounding NW TN.

We stood around her: a sister and her husband, children (the three of us who are left), and grandchildren. Someone began to sing "Amazing Grace." My sister laid her head on mom's chest as she sang, and before we finished the chorus, that frail breast (that had nurtured her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and countless youngsters in the community) ceased to draw breath.

Today was a blessed reminder that, in the coldest, deadest winter, there is the promise of springtime. The sun shone in Graham Park.

Today I remembered that in the time of suffering and discontent, there is also a promise:

"Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house ae many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also" John 14:1-3