just keep me here

This week's weather has been so lovely, I kinda wish it would stay this way all year long. It is the sweet spot before fall settles in. It's interesting how the body adjusts to patterns of weather - sometimes depending on whether or not the mind will yield. I grew up in a humid, sub-tropical climate, then after marriage, it was about 10 years in four seasons. Frigid temps, sparkling snow, brilliant autumn colors, summer's burst of heat, stormy clouds threatening calamity, soft buds eager to display new life, all had me in either awe or angst throughout the changing months. Then it was five years in mild winters, and now I’m on my third year back in full seasons. 

My sisters/sis in laws and I video chat regularly; there are 9 of us in the group, including my adult niece. Our homes are spread across the country, and one home will soon transplant overseas. It is fun to talk about what's happening in our daily lives. Current weather inevitably comes up. We often allow it to shape our mood, affect our plans, sometimes workload, definitely what we wear... If we have animals, weather affects our care for them as well. 

Everybody wants to be in that sweet spot, don't they? Just keep me here, the mind and body beg. We expect to thrive best in comfortable temperatures. I'll blossom like spring flowers opening wide to the sun, dancing happy in the warm breeze, I know I will... if only it could stay this good. 

I'm pretty sure we were designed with that innate desire to be surrounded by the fullness of (what I know to be) God's goodness and glory. "...in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16:11 

But what of the harsh pressures that come to us all at one point or another? Haven't we each seen a tuft of grass or a single flower growing strong in the crevice of a rock wall, a parched desert place, hidden under piles of natural mulch or at unusually high elevation? How is that possible? I wonder. There's no soil for the plant to take root, no moisture, no way to get out from under the brush, no air to breathe. But it grows anyway. 

Just keep me here: steady on this journey called life, colorful or bleak, amidst all the joys and sorrows.