Summer has been stretching.
Summer has been growing.
Summer has been tears.
Summer has been laughter.
Summer has been love.
Summer has been challenge.
Summer has been courage.
Summer has been fear.
...summer has been magical.
I am preparing to put myself under the tutelage of the school year once again. I approach this with mixed emotions. Part of me wants to hide myself from reality and stay in a world where stress is limited, the sun shines, and the world has no expectations of you. But reality is unavoidable and necessary. While watching a Woody Allen documentary on Netflix recently (I'm a big Woody Allen fan) he puts it like this,
"People in life are forced to chose between reality and fantasy. And it's much more pleasant to chose fantasy. But that way lies madness. And you're forced, finally, to chose reality. And you know, reality always disappoints, always hurts you."
Don't get me wrong, I'm excited too. But I'm learning what a sometimes incorrigible (and much too familiar) 'friend' (but really darkness enemy) that stress is. Is zaps away your hope (that the Bible says is, in fact, the anchor for your soul). It heaps upon you what feels like cement bricks until you cannot breath or see the sun. It strangles laughter. And it does not rest until you have given up and surrendered to it.
But this summer has taught me, refreshed me, and sprung me into a new season. I have made some changes and put in place some safeguards. I have learned how comfortable it is to sit in stress and let it strangle you and how critical it is to run from it and to Him. I have the Holy Spirit inside me and Jesus will never give me more than I can handle. I have learned the value in resting and in thought control.
Of not hurrying.
Of keep things simple.
Of letting go of perfection.
And of getting away (and being saved daily from it)
And as the poem below says, I want to go into this new seasons "easy, filled with light, and shinning".
xoxo,
mp
When I am Among the Trees by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."
