Changing with the leaves
This morning I awoke to the most beautiful sheet of frost covering my entire kitchen window. Despite the heat running all night, condensation from last nights soup formed tiny snowflakes across the century old panes. It is cold! 11 degrees to be precise. Cold enough to freeze not only my windows, but my car door locks as well. I can't say that winter is my favorite season.
But sometimes it's all in the perspective. How do I perceive this season of life? Is it a dormant frozen window pane or a frost encased tree preparing for a bountiful bloom? How difficult it is to be content in your current season!
Many have asked what the overall purpose or aim of this exercise in discipline and public sharing. Ultimately I always find it easier to believe the lies than the truth. One lie that we are all susceptible to is the classic lawn envy; ironic that the phrase most often associated with jealousy invokes an image of the green eyed monster. Despite the temptation to believe that your peers grass is greener, even their beautiful garden contains cantankerous weeds. It is easy to slip into the comparison game and think how miserably short your own life falls. Amazingly I constantly hear from the very peers whose lawns I am coveting that they are experiencing the very same emotions! That their own lives aren't where they wanted them to be by 25, by 30, or 50. One goal of this exercise is to escape the strangle hold that coveting places on my life. If you are so busy worrying about what you don't have and what you haven't accomplished, how can you ever recognize all the gifts, all the blessings.
When it comes to coveting vs. contentment in my own life, I am fairly certain that coveting has a home court advantage, and several years of points up on contentment. The first memory I have of jealousy ironically is the color of green, neon green. A little pleather jacket, perfectly piped in hot pink satin to drape stylishly over the petite shoulders of the one and only Barbie. When I spotted this jacket on my friends Barbie, I wanted it. I coveted it. I plotted on how I could get it for myself.
We all have a neon green jacket that consumes our thoughts and steals our present joy. The key to contentment is perspective. Even if this is the winter of my life, can I find the blessings despite the blustering cold? Can I choose to delight in the beauty of frost, the incomparable beauty of an individual snowflake? While I am preparing for the impending burgeoning of spring can I find delight in the wait, the dormancy? I know in my head that all good things take time, but can I rest fully in that knowledge in my heart?
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end" Ecclesiastes 3:11
Even if you're seeing the lack of beauty in your own life more than the lovely, rest in the dormancy. Know full well that everything is made beautiful in its own time. If even the trees and the bushes need months of frost and rest before they can burst forth with a colorful bounty, why would our own lives be any different? Bundle up, enjoy those mittens and earmuffs today, for the warmth of spring (and torrid heat of summer) is impending!
Since I am so cold here are some healthy options to keep you warm!
Breakfast:
Hot water with lemon and honey
Green Jasmine tea
Christmas Juice
Snack:
Sprouted English Muffin
Hard Boiled Egg
1/5 Avocado
Lunch:
Winter Greens Soup
Snack:
Roasted pecans
Cinnamon tea
Dinner:
Quinoa stuffed sweet potato
Christmas Juice (Red & Green!)
1 beet with greens attached
1 c kale
4 carrots
1 honey crisp apple
35 (ish) blades of wheatgrass
slice of ginger
Winter Greens Soup:
1 Bunch leafy kale
1 bunch collards
4 cloves garlic
1 jar of summers loveliest tomatoes
1 bunch radishes
onion
8 large carrots
Chicken or Vegetable stock
Sautee onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped radishes and carrots. Simmer until softened. Cover with jar of tomatoes and stock. Season with pepper, grated ginger, lime and rice wine vinegar. Bring to a boil and add stemmed and chopped greens. Serve over udon noodles garnished with green onions and cilantro.
Quinoa stuffed sweet potato
Prepared quinoa
Dried figs
green onion
garlic
curry
sweet potato
Bake a sweet potato until almost fully soft at the same time prepare 1/4 cup of quinoa. Quickly sautee garlic, add green onion, chopped figs and curry. Season with S & P. Incorporate cooked quinoa. Slice sweet potato in half and stuff with quinoa mixture. Bake for 5 more min.
When it comes to coveting vs. contentment in my own life, I am fairly certain that coveting has a home court advantage, and several years of points up on contentment. The first memory I have of jealousy ironically is the color of green, neon green. A little pleather jacket, perfectly piped in hot pink satin to drape stylishly over the petite shoulders of the one and only Barbie. When I spotted this jacket on my friends Barbie, I wanted it. I coveted it. I plotted on how I could get it for myself.
We all have a neon green jacket that consumes our thoughts and steals our present joy. The key to contentment is perspective. Even if this is the winter of my life, can I find the blessings despite the blustering cold? Can I choose to delight in the beauty of frost, the incomparable beauty of an individual snowflake? While I am preparing for the impending burgeoning of spring can I find delight in the wait, the dormancy? I know in my head that all good things take time, but can I rest fully in that knowledge in my heart?
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end" Ecclesiastes 3:11
Even if you're seeing the lack of beauty in your own life more than the lovely, rest in the dormancy. Know full well that everything is made beautiful in its own time. If even the trees and the bushes need months of frost and rest before they can burst forth with a colorful bounty, why would our own lives be any different? Bundle up, enjoy those mittens and earmuffs today, for the warmth of spring (and torrid heat of summer) is impending!
Since I am so cold here are some healthy options to keep you warm!
Breakfast:
Hot water with lemon and honey
Green Jasmine tea
Christmas Juice
Snack:
Sprouted English Muffin
Hard Boiled Egg
1/5 Avocado
Lunch:
Winter Greens Soup
Snack:
Roasted pecans
Cinnamon tea
Dinner:
Quinoa stuffed sweet potato
Christmas Juice (Red & Green!)
1 beet with greens attached
1 c kale
4 carrots
1 honey crisp apple
35 (ish) blades of wheatgrass
slice of ginger
Winter Greens Soup:
1 Bunch leafy kale
1 bunch collards
4 cloves garlic
1 jar of summers loveliest tomatoes
1 bunch radishes
onion
8 large carrots
Chicken or Vegetable stock
Sautee onion and garlic until translucent. Add chopped radishes and carrots. Simmer until softened. Cover with jar of tomatoes and stock. Season with pepper, grated ginger, lime and rice wine vinegar. Bring to a boil and add stemmed and chopped greens. Serve over udon noodles garnished with green onions and cilantro.
Quinoa stuffed sweet potato
Prepared quinoa
Dried figs
green onion
garlic
curry
sweet potato
Bake a sweet potato until almost fully soft at the same time prepare 1/4 cup of quinoa. Quickly sautee garlic, add green onion, chopped figs and curry. Season with S & P. Incorporate cooked quinoa. Slice sweet potato in half and stuff with quinoa mixture. Bake for 5 more min.
A much needed reminder. I tend to let the greener grass motivate me when I should be spending that time thanking the lord for what he has provided me. I become cold.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing when we place all of our focus on what we don't have, the remaining green parts of our own lives do turn to frosty tundra! Thanks for reading Channing, I am glad your found it encouraging.
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