SEASONS
– SPRING HAS SPRUNG
(Writing
and photography by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
Welcome
to the first day of spring for 2017!
Let’s turn a page into new and exciting things. Let’s stop and look around and enjoy the newest scenery of our lives together.
Don’t you love the fresh breath of air that each spring brings to the earth?
I’ve always enjoyed that fresh, new aspect of the changing of the seasons from winter to spring. The privet is blooming and the pollen is flowing heavily through the air. People are washing cars and dusting off their patio furniture and planting flowers in brightly colored pots. Some places are carpeted with little pink petals and some walkways are lined with bright cheerful blooms that are popping their heads out to say hello to a new season.
Let’s turn a page into new and exciting things. Let’s stop and look around and enjoy the newest scenery of our lives together.
Don’t you love the fresh breath of air that each spring brings to the earth?
I’ve always enjoyed that fresh, new aspect of the changing of the seasons from winter to spring. The privet is blooming and the pollen is flowing heavily through the air. People are washing cars and dusting off their patio furniture and planting flowers in brightly colored pots. Some places are carpeted with little pink petals and some walkways are lined with bright cheerful blooms that are popping their heads out to say hello to a new season.
With the coming of spring one gets the feeling that everything can be fresh and new again. I am so grateful that a season can do this to our attitudes. This
winter has been hard and full of political turmoil and critical national changes and more and more never-ending tragic
news for days at a time. I’m ready for a break from the
constant bombardment of the negative facts of the ever-changing modern world and all of the harsh realities that sometimes go along with it.
I love how spring seems to soften all the things around us. It perks up people’s attitudes and even brings big wide smiles to their faces.
How could you look at the changing landscape across America right now and frown? The beautiful spacious skies are so blue and the amber fields of grain are turning a lovely shade of bright green. The Great Artist Of Heaven has been busy!
Each spring brings its own form of loveliness Everything everywhere stands up and speaks of hope, from the pretty new flowers to the cheerful colors of the blossoming fruit trees. There is a warm breeze blowing through that is taking away winter's chill and getting us all ready for vacations.
Let’s get some happy renewals going on; let’s step into this spring with renewed vigor and anticipation. Every spring brings new life and this is reason to celebrate and rejoice.
I love how spring seems to soften all the things around us. It perks up people’s attitudes and even brings big wide smiles to their faces.
How could you look at the changing landscape across America right now and frown? The beautiful spacious skies are so blue and the amber fields of grain are turning a lovely shade of bright green. The Great Artist Of Heaven has been busy!
Each spring brings its own form of loveliness Everything everywhere stands up and speaks of hope, from the pretty new flowers to the cheerful colors of the blossoming fruit trees. There is a warm breeze blowing through that is taking away winter's chill and getting us all ready for vacations.
Let’s get some happy renewals going on; let’s step into this spring with renewed vigor and anticipation. Every spring brings new life and this is reason to celebrate and rejoice.
One
way to celebrate spring's arrival is to stop and remember the things that we are most grateful for.
Can you look back over memories of spring times
in your life and think of things that make you smile? I hope so.
I
have some wonderful memories of growing up on a farm and watching the season of spring come to cheer up the land at the end of every brown bleak winter. Chicks were popping their little heads out of eggs, and birds were busy building their nests. Baby calves and foals were being born and the ground was being turned and prepared for fresh new crops with hopes for a bountiful harvesting season. I loved the feelings of anticipation. Children were anticipating school ending; adults were anticipating nice long summer nights and sweet family gatherings and vacations. The houses always got their spring cleanings; and everything seemed to take on a whole new pure, clean, wholesome feeling of renewal. At the farm we didn't throw things away when they were old and dingy; we cleaned them up and made them look new again. There was always this great transformation going on every spring.
All of a sudden you begin to see this drastic change! It is so noticeable. The people notice, the animals notice, and the land notices. They notice the renewal of the life process that has arrived again just like clockwork. The Great Timekeeper has wound his watch again and spring has appeared everywhere. Suddenly everyone and everything seems to be watching and paying attention with wide open eyes; as if they are all coming out of a long winter hibernation and just realizing that there is so much more life to be living.
All of a sudden you begin to see this drastic change! It is so noticeable. The people notice, the animals notice, and the land notices. They notice the renewal of the life process that has arrived again just like clockwork. The Great Timekeeper has wound his watch again and spring has appeared everywhere. Suddenly everyone and everything seems to be watching and paying attention with wide open eyes; as if they are all coming out of a long winter hibernation and just realizing that there is so much more life to be living.
The spring family
gatherings we used to share at the farm were so wonderful! I have so many vivid memories and even some cherished photos to remind me of how very blessed it was to be able to share those years of my life with my family on the farm.
My Mom's tables were always so beautiful and her cooking was delicious. The time we all shared was very well spent. I'll bet you have some similar memories of things that have happened in the springs of your life. Hold on to them and cherish them. They are something to pull out of the corners of your mind when the world feels too fast and too busy and too overwhelming. Just slow down and remember springs past. It will change your day and your mood and make you feel grateful.
My Mom's tables were always so beautiful and her cooking was delicious. The time we all shared was very well spent. I'll bet you have some similar memories of things that have happened in the springs of your life. Hold on to them and cherish them. They are something to pull out of the corners of your mind when the world feels too fast and too busy and too overwhelming. Just slow down and remember springs past. It will change your day and your mood and make you feel grateful.
As much as I enjoyed those old memories, I am also very grateful for the memories we are making in the present in our own home.
We have food. We have shelter. We have what we need to gather together with family and friends and thank God for putting up with us and loving us so much to bless us with each other. We have abundance of all that matters.
I’m especially thankful for the seasonal changes that spring brings to our humble little castle where love abounds. Any home can be a castle if love lives there and its owners are paying attention to God’s ways. A home doesn’t have to be a mansion to be a castle; it simply has to be loved.
Our castle is going through the empty-nest years; but the funny thing about that is for some reason our family just keeps growing, and the house is very rarely ever empty! We are so happy with our grown kids, their spouses and our grandchildren. Each one of them has brought a different set of blessing into our days. Spring brings yet another reason for being grateful and celebrating family.
We have food. We have shelter. We have what we need to gather together with family and friends and thank God for putting up with us and loving us so much to bless us with each other. We have abundance of all that matters.
I’m especially thankful for the seasonal changes that spring brings to our humble little castle where love abounds. Any home can be a castle if love lives there and its owners are paying attention to God’s ways. A home doesn’t have to be a mansion to be a castle; it simply has to be loved.
Our castle is going through the empty-nest years; but the funny thing about that is for some reason our family just keeps growing, and the house is very rarely ever empty! We are so happy with our grown kids, their spouses and our grandchildren. Each one of them has brought a different set of blessing into our days. Spring brings yet another reason for being grateful and celebrating family.
It is nice to be grateful for our past memories of spring, and even nicer to be appreciative of the moment we are living in right now. Then
there is also the aspect of looking to the future springs that will yet take place. We begin to feel the hope that the changing
season brings and we start to do the little things that we do that make us who
we are. Families gather, friends gather,
wonderful things are set in motion to come together in beautiful ways. This is the beauty that spring brings to us.
Today I am sending up a fresh new prayer, that this new season for you is glorious and full of love and laughter and fun. I pray that God will bless you all abundantly. I hope the IN SEASON blog can always play a tiny part in your day and the celebration of your spring happiness. Look forward to some fresh and exciting new articles this spring.
May you have all the time you need in this new season to bring your thankful heart before God and give Him the praise that He deserves for leading us ever onward and forward in so many beautiful and seasonal ways. God surely blessed us when He created the changing of the seasons. Today I am deeply grateful as I watch the negatives turning into positives and I see how God has blessed our land.
May you have all the time you need in this new season to bring your thankful heart before God and give Him the praise that He deserves for leading us ever onward and forward in so many beautiful and seasonal ways. God surely blessed us when He created the changing of the seasons. Today I am deeply grateful as I watch the negatives turning into positives and I see how God has blessed our land.
