Spring and Today

Why does spring always taunt me? I am ready for warmth, aching for sun, longing to run around barefoot in my short sleeves. So we get up to the fifties, we tickle the underbelly of the sixties. And the next morning we're back in the twenties.

Spring loves to taunt us, especially those of us who live in the Midwest. Here where, if you don't like the weather just wait a day because it'll change, we learn not expect too much. We learn that the sunshine today means nothing for tomorrow. I call time and temp every morning because I have no idea what the day will actually be like. You can't predict it.

Life is the same way. Things are going well, and we somehow get to expecting that they will stay that way. When a good thing comes alone, we want it to remain. We don't want more trials, more hardships, late paychecks or overdue bills.

Life is like the weather, fickle and changing. Don't like how things are going? Just wait til tomorrow. It'll change. It always does.

Yet at the same time, tomorrow never really comes. We are always stuck in today.

The sun will come out tomorrow.
At least that's what they say.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
There is now tomorrow.
So find your joy today.

We spend so much time moaning about today that we forget to enjoy it. We spend so much time waiting for tomorrow that when it comes, we hardly notice. We cannot simply inhabit the moment, good or bad, and be ok. We look back to better times, we look forward to better times, but when the good times are here we hardly stop to smell the fresh spring flowers.

I saw crocuses yesterday, little yellow and purple petals opened up like miniature suns in the green, green grass. I stopped. I leaned my nose down to the ground. I smelled deeply of fresh earth and sweet flowers. I ran my finger along the petals. I enjoyed the moment.

Don't always be looking forward for what is to come. Look at what is around you right now. Paul said that he had learned to be content in any situation. When he was hungry, tired, beat-up, rejected and reviled, he had learned to be ok. When he was warm, well-fed and with friends, he had learned to be ok. He learned to enjoy the moment and be content wherever he was because he was with God and doing God's will.

We can't ignore tomorrow, and we shouldn't stop anticipating better days. God wants us to hope, to expect the time when good will win out and all will be right with the world again. But we can't forget that we live today, whether it is spring or winter, whether the flowers are blooming or the sky is gray and the ice is cold. There is beauty in the crocuses and there is beauty in the clouds.

The author of this hymn understood this, even as he mourned the death of his daughters.

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, God has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul."

Find your peace here and now. Feel the love of God wrap around you whether you are in the middle of a celebration or a tragedy. God is here, so today I am ok.