Feb
19
2009
Seasons of Change
Winter, as usual by February, seems a bit frozen in time. The sun has melted some of the snow but the kids have been inside for almost four months now and are bouncing off the walls. Literally. Today, my little cherubs successfully broke a 100-year old antique lamp and jumped the springs out of the guest-bed. Even the hardiest Adirondack “hibernator” could catch a case of cabin fever.
Last week after an hour of arts-n-crafts (not my fav by any stretch) and the hundredth game of Yahtzee, I looked at them and noticed that they were white as ghosts. I freaked that they were getting Vitamin-D-deficiency-disorder-syndrome or surely something detrimental to their long-term health by being inside too much.
So like any health-conscious mom, I made them go outside and stand in the sun in the driveway for 10 minutes. “Why are we just standing out here? I’m freezing!” Sara yelled. “Just do it honey.” I replied. Poor kids.
But I know things will change soon. The days will get longer, the breezes warmer, the kids rosier.
A young woman once wrote this verse in a poem to her husband on their wedding day dreaming about their future:
I wish that we will hold hands
As we stand on rocks which border a river.
The water will rush by and remind us how fast change can come.
We will feel the mist of water in our eyes
And see the irony of how refreshing change can be.
As unrelenting as the weather seems before long the dog will be tracking mud through my house and the black flies will be vexing the spring gardening and morning walks. The snow atop the Adirondack Mountains will melt – the water finding its way to the many streams and rising in the underground springs around my house.
Little could that young woman know of the changes she would see in her life. Little can any of us know the change and irony that will exhaust and then refresh us.
As the season closes, here’s to the sun’s warmth on the faces of my two beautiful children and to the rising waters that bring the unexpected gifts of transformation and change to my life.
Painting birdhouses they built with Daddy
