TODAY’S LAUGH: A picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case $1,200 worth of gas bills…
This “ice sculpture” grows every winter outside my office, as water drips from the furnace exhaust pipe suspended from
the underside of the deck. It’s usually only a couple of feet tall. THIS winter has been SO cold that this ice MONSTER is SEVEN FEET TALL! (Click the pic for a closer look if you dare.)
TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…” says Ecclesiastes 3:1, written long before the Byrds recorded “Turn, Turn, Turn” in 1965.
A time to dance and a time to mourn. A time to plant and a time to reap. And there is a time to freeze and, just as certainly, a time to thaw out!
As with all things in life I remember today that, “This too shall pass.” The weatherman predicts temps above freezing all week. The ice monster will be gone very soon, and I don’t think I’m going to miss him.
I plan to enjoy THIS spring as no other! How about you? What says “spring” to you? What in your life needs “thawing out”? A relationship? An attitude? When do you remind yourself that “this too shall pass”?
PARTING THOUGHT: “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” (Anne Bradstreet)
May you be blessed today! MP
(P.S. Tuesday March 11, 2008, 4:05 p.m. CDT The Ice Monster has fallen! It’s 45 degrees outside. May we have a moment of silence please…?)
guess I better get another job so I can pay all those gas bills.
I am looking to thaw out a different ice monster this spring. I found a job at a company that I later realized was cold, militant, and a warzone. My original joy and perkiness turned to bitterness and defensiveness.
Just this week I read a Buddhist concept -which in short- taught me that I was feeding the seeds of hate at this company by my defensiveness. I might not be able to thaw out the entire company, but I believe that for me the seasons are changing.
Welcome spring.
MP)
(Welcome spring, indeed!
LOL–the “Taps” is a nice touch, Mary!!!
There is another Ice Monster outside of Yonkers @ Oakwood Mall that my oldest pointed out to us, but yours by far is the largest I’ve *ever* seen in a residential setting!
My thawing out emotionally starts on Ground Hog’s Day when our marathon of birthdays begins. Just about every two weeks, someone in our family becomes a year older (hummm, that could be a real damper with me and Don…). The streamers we put up for each of our three children really help to melt the winter blues, along with Valentine’s and St. Paddy’s Day.
Birds singing their “springtime songs” as *they* are thawing out (mating/courting songs and birds that are immigrating or migrating through), as well as the first Crocus bloom accelerate the thawing process for my state of being.
MP)
(Ahhhh…
Physically, thawing begins when the temp starts to rise and my muscles are warmer and I can run around easier!
Spiritually, when I get a sense of the Lord communicating to me through His word, as well as through things He shows me, usually through nature.
The ultimate thaw? The relationship of Creator with the one’s He’s created in His image, sharing in a moment together. It is truly uplifting, and a picture of things to come when we will no longer be distracted from His presence!
What signals spring? Sugar maples wearing sap-collecting fanny packs. Finding that lost mitten in the driveway when the ice melts. Hearing the birds drop their protective neck scarves and start to sing again. Chive spears in a hurry to beat the other garden perennials to the punch. Manure spreaders replace snow plows on the country roads. And…my personal no-turning-back sign of spring? Losing sleep as I listen to the peepers (itty tiny frogs) chirping again. They thawed out. So will I!
MP)
(And that tantalizing scent of what they are a-spreadin’ wafting up from the fields. Now THAT say “spring” to me!
I know it’s time to start thawing out when I see piles and piles of dog dung in the back yard that have sunk down into the mucky grass. Yuck. Thank God we have a Shitzu-poo (no pun intended) and not a Black Lab!! Seriously, I plant Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seedlings in the house around Good Friday every year and hopefully the delicate tendrils will begin to wrap themselves around our mailbox in a couple months!
MP)
(Ah yes, the things that we find as the snow melts. Much better the lovely image of “heavenly blue mornings of glory”!