embracing seasons...

Yes, it's true that I am not a big fan of gray skies and cold weather, but I am a fan of fall! And, I realized the other day that really, I just don't like the cold weather in Michigan in February and March. I can handle the rest! So, instead of bemoaning fall because summer is over, I choose to embrace fall, look forward the the changing trees and soon to be blowing snow, and will just hunker down and endure February and March when they get here!

Here are just a few fall photos that make me smile...

 Canning tomatoes on a chilly Saturday morning with my friends Barb and Marge! Don't they look yummy? Bring on February...

 This photo that Adrianne texted to me after an afternoon at the Renaissance Festival! (How can one still be so beautiful with a zebra face?)

This over my front yard early another Saturday morning....

(I WILL do that one day around my birthday.... )

And this view from my deck yesterday morning...rainy, but beautiful as things are starting to change color...

So, as I choose to embrace fall and the approaching winter, I think upon this verse, first from Young's Literal Translation:

"To everything -- a season, 

and a time to every delight 

under the heavens"

or

from The Message:

"There's an opportune time 

to do things; 

a right time for everything 

on the earth"

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Which tells me that these seasons that I love (for the most part) are doing the right thing at the right time...and my changing focus and activities are also right, and to be a delight and God-pleasing, just as the seasons are....hmmm...might that also apply to bigger things in my life?

I believe so. 

For now, it is time for me to be in ministry here in Oxford, MI...and while my heart spends a lot of time in Haiti, I know that there is a season for that, as well. And my time in each place may very serve the very purpose of preparing me for the other. 

It's something to think about...

(And, as my heart has been in Haiti the last couple of days, one of the thing I am doing this afternoon is preparing a Haitian dinner...fried Plantains (finally found them!), Picklese (a spicy cabbage/carrot salad, and tuna with onions and Indian hot sauce...yum! It's also part of this season, and I will delight in it!) Here's a photo, added after dinner. Good thing I can edit my posts!

and, from 12 o'clock in clockwise order, we have Indian Hot Sauce (mixed with the hot tuna and mixed with ketchup for dipping plantains), hot tuna, fried plantains with Picklese (spicy cabbage salad on top), and a mango napkin holder made in Haiti, as well as a placemat made in Haiti by our wonderful cook, Ziane! Did my heart (and tummy!) good!