Wednesday's Words for May 2, 2012

Spring 2012 is turning out to be Mother Nature’s worst problem child, if you ask me. Cold, wet weather makes me think of comforting things: warm blankets, coffee, good books—and pain meds.

Somehow, after the mild winter we had, I thought we might just slide right into the warm weather of spring.

So far, it’s not happening. I can deal with the weather, because really, the cold and rain and such are just inconvenient. Many other folks, just south of us, have to cope with violent weather and dangerous storms. I’ve made a lot of friends in the States over the last few years, and every time I hear about lines of dangerous thunderstorms and spawning tornadoes, I do a lot of praying.

I hate to wish my days away, but I keep thinking if we can all just get through this spring, unharmed and intact, then life will be good and peaceful once again. I seriously don’t know how those of you who live in tornado prone areas do it, I really don’t. How do you face each spring knowing that there are going to be storms and that you could lose not only your homes, but that you or your loved ones could be injured, or lost?

I know that normal is just what you’re used to, and I suppose we can, and do, get used to a lot of things and call them normal. Yet I can’t help but shake my head in awe of you.

I feel so fortunate because we don’t seem to have those kinds of challenges here, at least not as a matter of course. Snow and ice and extreme temperatures seem to be our specialty here. It did snow in some areas last week, but I was very lucky, and my newly blooming and soon to be blooming tulips and daffodils were able to avoid getting dumped on or damaged.

A week ago I didn’t think that would necessarily be possible, as Environment Canada issued a weather warning –according to them we were supposed to get a huge amount of snow. It didn’t happen, and although the temperatures did dip below freezing for a few hours, it wasn’t enough to set off a killing frost.

We’re all recovered from our week in the Chicago area, and once more happily pursuing our daily routines. My daughter continues to drive her father to work each morning, and I continue to be able to enjoy the phenomenon of uninterrupted sleep, which results in my getting more work done each day.

Our second daughter is on a more permanent schedule now of two weeks of day shifts, followed by two weeks of nights. Most are just three day weeks for her, but some are longer. That means we have the kids sleeping overnight on a fairly regular basis.

It’s nearly time to open the upstairs again. We close it off in the winter because it never got completely finished after our son died; in the winter it gets quite cold up there, and costs a fortune to heat. But in the spring and summer, we have the upstairs open. We’ve had two very old beds up there for the kids, but this year we’re going to buy some new ones. We’re going to see if we can’t maybe finish the insulating and the dry-walling so we can keep it open during the winter—without causing our heating bills to triple.

The rhythm of life is different for everyone, but a definite presence for us all. It’s a pattern that brings us each the most comfort and security, and maybe that’s the answer to my question about how people manage to get through their own particular reality.

It’s their rhythm and they’re used to it. Love,
Morgan
http://www.morganashbury.com/
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury