Living in the Moment

I posted a picture yesterday - didn't have time to really think let alone compose a blog, so I chose a winter picture of my backyard. There's something about the snow buried Adirondack chairs that just says "waiting for summer." Many people I know spend a lot of time during the winter waiting for summer. They complain about the cold, the snow, the lack of snow, the driving conditions etc. I decided long ago to accept the fact that living in the Catskills means I am going to live in winter for five or six months each year. That seems like an awful lot of time to spend waiting for something else. So, although my Adirondack chairs are waiting for summer I am not. I love the winter. Today I drank my morning coffee while watching a kaleidoscope of birds flutter to and from my bird feeder. Yesterday I watched a flock of turkeys make their way around the pond in the backyard - the snow was just hovering on the edges of the hemlock trees as they picked their way through the edge of the forest. When I came home from church I was surprised by a flock of another kind - not wildlife, but a group of teenagers snow shoeing through the woods and taking a short cut through my backyard. They were students from The Family Foundation School http://www.thefamilyschool.com/ and I couldn't help but think how lucky they were to be there with the sun warm enough to start the icicles dripping, and the sky a brilliant blue in such contrast to the blinding whiteness of the snow. I believe that we can be changed by our environment. And to be surrounded by the things of God helps bring Him into our hearts. How much peace and serenity was gifted to these young people because they were in my backyard on this Sunday morning?