This Saturday has been the most beautiful Saturday and the most beautiful day that I have been blessed with in a long time. It has been a long and slow day which has lead it also to be entirely fruitful and happy. It started with me waking up next to one of my most treasured friends. But it really started the day before. No wait, it really started a year ago...
One year ago I was in the same place and state as I am this year and this week. It was the worst week of my life. Mid February means humid, grayness, wind, cold, bleak horridness for the Mid-West. I grew up there and will defend it until the end if anyone decides to diss my state. Only I get to do it because I love it so much. Got it? Good. Anyway, that is South Dakota. I don't live there any more, but I miss it mind you. Michigan is my current state of scrutiny. I came here last year with a boss that asked me to do ridiculous things that I hated-we recruit here at two private colleges for our summer business. And I was lonely, depressed and cold the entire week. All I did was eat, work and sleep. Notice talking or smiling is not listed. So why, might you ask (yes you may) am I here again? Especially since (if you did not know) you don't even work for that company any more? Well, let me tell you: my old boss is gone, a few people I treasure with the depths of my heart are here again for school since we worked together in the mountains last summer, and I didn't have anything else pressing-okay, I'm a softy and I care deeply about the program. So here I am and two out of the first three days have been sunny which is worth noting to set the stage.
Last year, I recall one morning that was gray although the entire days were gray. It was as though the lights never came on, the sun never rose, the clouds were that thick. But I was despairing over the lack of promise when a red cardinal flew into the bird feeder in the back yard suddenly making the landscape beautiful. Gray skies, gray snow, gray bare birches and brilliant red cardinal. Those birds are back again this year, as am I. When I come I stay in the campus guest house. One end of the house is four guest bedrooms- inviting, cozy, private. The living room is large in the middle with a fireplace and couches- inviting, cozy, warm. Last night I called one of my favorite people in the world, much less Michigan, and she came over from her dorm. We sat in that living room then had a sleepover. This morning, bringing me back to the first paragraph, the sun shone through the window and into my heart. I cannot believe the blessing of this day as it unfolded. We sat for an hour or more drinking our coffee, then ate breakfast-slowly, lingering. It was all done in such a peaceful, lingering fashion. Then I went for an hour run around the lake she gave me directions to. Then I met up with her again and we had lunch and have been at the library ever since.
Already in this day I have stopped to be calm, relaxed, with my hands around a coffee cup or my arms around a friend, more times than in the past week. I pause again now to recall it. Glorious, glorious, Lord. Thank you for this. All of this.
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