Another Rainy Day In Oregon

It's early on Friday morning. I'm at home sitting in our computer/guest bedroom looking out the window at our backyard. It is rainy and wet out there, cold and gloomy. The sky is dark and overcast. Just another normal Oregon winter day.

We have two beautiful red maple trees in the yard and one of them is just outside the window. In the summer it has lovely broad red leaves that provide cooling shade, and its branches are home to many little birds. However, right now most of those red leaves are on the ground, blown all over the yard, covering the grass like a wet red and gold carpet. It reminds me that I have to get out there and rake them up before they kill the grass.

I love Fall, at least the early part of it, but I'm not a big fan of winter. I am one of those people who is impacted by gray skies and lack of sunshine. My daughter, Simoni, on the other hand, actually likes these dark days. I tell her that she is nuts. She just laughs at me.

I try not to let the weather outside control my moods but it is a struggle. Intellectually I understand that winter is just part of the natural life cycle. It is necessary for the plants and trees. This cold, wet time is their resting period, when they restore their strength so that they can once again come out in all their glory in the spring. That knowledge is what makes winter bearable.

But it reminds me that our lives also have seasons. We enjoy the days of sunshine, when things are bright and beautiful and everything is going smoothly. On those days we can easily forget what winter feels like. But God knows that we too, like the plants and trees, need down time. We need the dark cold days that drive us inward to sit by the fireplace. When the cold days come, the days without sunshine, we go looking for heat and light and a cozy place. We go looking for God, the Light of the world. It is in the hard times that we seek Him. At least that is how it works with me. When everything in my life is on schedule and running well I sometimes forget how much I need Him. That's when He lets me have a couple of rainy cold days as an attitude adjustment and a reminder that "I need Thee every hour."

Now, for something different, as Monte Python used to say... My daughter-in-law, Sharon, sent me the following. It made me laugh, and I hope you will like it too.

Finally…a workable solution

My mailbox, like yours, is being flooded almost every day with mail concerning gas prices and illegal immigrants—about boycotting oil companies, or not; about providing amnesty to illegal immigrants, or not, etc.

Since I have become jaded to the various solutions proposed by the Republicans, Democrats, Sierra Club, ACLU, etc., I have elected to solve these problems as they affect me personally. My response solves both my gas and my illegal immigrant problems...

I’ve decided to start hiring illegal immigrants to push my car. They are plentiful, and it will be cheaper than buying gas. Then I’ll pay them in Mexican Pesos, so they have to go back home to spend it.

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

Still crazy,
Mike