A Chill In The Air

There was a slight chill in the air this morning, enough so that it made me want a fire in the stove. From now until late next fall, fires in the stove will be few and far between. This time of the year carries with it many mixed emotions. I am thrilled to see the awakening of nature from its long winters sleep and look forward to planting the garden and seeing new baby chicks grow under my care...there is also a sadness for the passing of winter, complete with the purity of a blanket of snow, cozy fires in the stove, the excitement of a coming storm and they way my face feels when I am out doing chores in the cold mornings. I will miss mittens and wool socks. Spinning by the fire, imagining what life was like for my great grandparents who lived their early years just in the way I have always dreamed about. Yes, we live much like that in many ways, but modern life is there for the taking for us, when our garden dies under ugly weather, we can just go to the store and buy all we want. We can have a lazy day with no serious consequences.

We are blessed in ways we don't even acknowledge on a daily basis, one blessing is that we can choose how we wish to live and still have a back-up system. In past generations, that was not always the case. Some winters when crops failed, people went hungry.

Often times I find myself mentally taking stock of the things that are wrong with life in these modern times, but sad to admit, it is not equalled by the times I count what is right with modern life. I had the choice to send my children to school or homeschool them. I have the choice of putting in central heat or just burning wood. I have the choice of a garden or not. We can burn our oil lamps or switch on a light, we have the choice. I have the choice to work or stay home. I have the choice to eat a certain way. I have the choice to drive here or there on any given day.

This morning, when the sun is filling my house with a small taste of what Heavens glory must look like, I choose to have a fire going in the stove, burn balsam incense, listen to music I love, have sweet potatoes baking in the oven, sit at the computer, wear a dress and not slacks, watch the birds outside my window, to be filled with contentment and a deep level of happiness that is not the silly kind, but deep like a river and to count the blessings of health, vigor, to love and be loved, to have the choice to live a life that is peppered with old fashioned and modern. We are blessed.