Reflections

I went for a walk the other day. The air was brisk and the birds were singing. Most of the fall leaves have dropped but there are plenty of evergreen trees and bushes in my neighborhood where birds are nesting and hiding out. It was lovely. The week before, I took a short video of the sky with the soundtrack of birds and decided to post it on Instagram as a minute of "Wordless wonder and worship for your weekend." Even this self-proclaimed "word-girl" needs the quiet I find in nature, and it was calming to my soul to record and share a minute of wordless wonder. I wanted to do it again, so while I was out walking on Friday, I tried to take some more video of trees and birds. But there were leaf blowers. They just kept blowing. It was crazy how their noise would carry across backyards and echo throughout the neighborhood. The birds kept singing, but I couldn't take a video without the leaf blower and lawn mowers intruding on my soundtrack. I actually laughed out ...

Please Don't Shoot Your Boat

I hate to admit this, but I have a tendency to shoot holes in my boat. I look around and see so many boats that are leaking or full-blown sinking, so I just go ahead and shoot a hole in mine because somehow it feels wrong if I'm not sinking, too. Photo by Jassim Vailoces on Unsplash Of course, I'm not talking about literal boats. I'm not really out on a lake shooting a hole in my son's kayak or my hubby's little aluminum fishing boat. (That would be crazy.) I'm talking about my heart. I can be very tempted to sink my emotional boat when I see others sinking. Logical or not, it's hard for me to feel okay when others aren't okay. (Spoiler alert! This is a problem because there's always someone in the world who is not okay.) I've gone through a lot of emotions and adjustments in the last weeks. (See my previous post about COVID-19 Culture Shock .) But at this point, even though my city/state is still COVID-19-CLOSED, I am doing okay. Our p...

Patience in the Winter Seasons

When I looked at the trees and bushes outside last week, from a distance they mostly looked asleep - or even dead. Winter is like that. Trees look barren and skies are often gray. It's cold and dark and not the time of year we associate with growth. To be honest, winter is not my favorite season. I know some people love it, but the cold days and long, dark nights make me feel dreary and unmotivated. I struggle to feel like I'm growing the way I want to. Are there places in your life where things feel dormant or dead? Does it feel like winter in your heart? DON'T DESPAIR. What we see from a distance when we look at the trees and what we feel about our current season in life is never the whole story. When I stopped last week and looked more closely at the trees and bushes in my yard, over and over again I found the beginnings of new growth. It wasn't obvious from a distance yet, but it was undeniably there. As I reflect on the photos I took last weekend I'm remember...

Melissa Ens

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