I missed You too last month! That awful flu struck everyone here. I meant to ask You….whatever caused You to create flu, anyway?? Not one of Your better ideas, if you ask me. Germs need love, too? Now that is something I’m just going to have to take on Faith!

Tea? Chamomile, simple and peaceful. That's ME, today, too! A pleasant break from the usual chaos of family life. This bread is just plain whole grain. My new friend Kim ground some Prairie Gold wheat for me yesterday and this is the result. What a miracle wheat, water, yeast and salt can be! Yes, of course, here is a little butter! Mmmmmmmm

The road in is a mess today, isn’t it! The snow that was exhilaratingly beautiful coming down is buried in mud, its pure whiteness obliterated by dirt and ruts and frozen rain. Driving in it is miserable, too, did You find that? Some of those potholes can stop you dead! And Your car!! My goodness, what color did You say it was!? Who could tell!!

You know, in a few weeks, the sides of the road that are so sodden and ugly are going to be breathtaking! It won’t be long before the fiddlehead ferns and skunk cabbage once again win out over the muck. The forsythia soon follow, and the dogwoods. As if by magic, the dark, dank tired-out Winter forest gives way to the sweetness of Spring. Life renewed, Your promise is fulfilled. Every year, without fail, the beauty arrives, stimulated into life and nurtured by the very conditions we find so unappealing right now. 

And don’t we take that Miracle for granted! Isn’t that what Faith is? We take a huge, unexplainable power and accept it! 

Oh yes yes yes! People ARE like that, as well. We come into this world like the falling snow, clean and beautiful and innocent. A little snowdrift of purity. Who doesn’t enjoy the precious sounds and scents of a newborn! Heaven knows, over time, that little snow drift gets its first splattering of mud, followed by a nasty hard rain. Then it is run over by a passing car and the potholes begin. The world works on the little snowdrift and the snowdrift becomes a little less attractive, a little harder to look at. What value could such an ugly thing have, that dirties our boots and bogs down our cars? The passage of time, life itself, can make us ugly and unhappy.

Faith, precious faith. As in the forest, there is growth taking place. Even when we cannot see it, there is progress towards the perfect Spring for every person, isn’t there? We have to believe, we must have Faith, that there is good going on under the mud. Having to battle our way up through the ice and the rocks and the litter makes us strong, don’t You think? Teaches us perseverance and how to compromise, when we come to a boulder and must grow around it. Eventually, when the Season is right, we burst through the frozen muck and show ourselves as the beautiful being we are. With blinking, grateful eyes, we find the Light.

You are right, Dear, it IS getting late. I do go on, today, don’t I!! The temperature has dropped quickly and the road will be frozen now and easier to drive on! As You make Your way through the mire that is my road, picture the loveliness of the flourishing Spring that will be there when You come again! THAT is Faith.

A hug for You, too, my dear Sister and Friend and Teacher.

Til next time!