Let It Rain

Tonight, on our way home from work, Jamie and I kept hearing radio announcements of a storm on the way.  We mostly ignored them.  After all, this is Texas, and they don't have rain here like we had in Virginia.  My daddy calls Virginia storms 'gullywashers'. They last for hours, they almost always have dramatic thunder and lightning, and they are completely wonderful. 

I love rain. Maybe it's the Irish and Scottish genes floating around in my DNA, but I've always loved weather that is generally considered 'bad' weather.  There is something about a rain coat and rubber rain boots, with a big happy umbrella that just makes me adventurous.  Or, alternatively, a really good rain storm is a perfect opportunity to 'opt out' for a while, curl up with a book and a cup of tea, and just stay inside and listen. 

There haven't been many of those days since we moved.  And I've sorely  missed them. 

But just as we got almost home, maybe 1/2 mile from our house, it started.  A drop here or there, not even sprinkling, so much as dripping!  But huge, FAT drops.....And after another couple blocks, some of the 'drops' would bounce on the pavement!  Hail starting.....By the time we got home, we pulled into the carport under a torrential downpour! Oh, glorious rain!!!

I sat inside listening for a while, then invited Jamie to come with me out on my porch swing.  Porches in Texas are made wide enough that the heat of the summer sun can never reach the house.  Centuries before air conditioning, it's all they had to cool their homes, and it's a very typical design feature, now.  My house is no different.  So we sat on the front porch, under the tin roof, listening to the rain.  We'd only been out there a few minutes when.....

Thunder! A huge flash of lightning lit up the entire sky in my front yard, bright as day, and then seconds later, the thunder came.  But it came in a way I have never heard before, and in a way I don't think I will ever get tired of!  Our house sits in a valley between to ridgelines of the Texas hill country.  So the thunder started on one end of the ridge, and rolled down the valley all the way to the other end of the ridge line!  And then echoed back!  I have heard the term rolling thunder, but in my life up to now, that only referred to drivers on a NASCAR track!!  This was literal and dramatic rolling. Thunder.  I was so awed, we stayed out there, by now getting quite cold, just so I could hear it one more time before we came in.  I know I will spend many nights out on my porch swing, listening to the thunder roll by. 

The plants needed the rain.  The tiny new little dogwoods and redbuds my family got me to remind me of Virginia need the rain.  The dry creekbed behind my house needs the rain.  But I needed the rain, too.  What a soothing sound for my soul.  What an absolute joy. 

I am reminded today of my very favorite Psalm, in experiencing the power and glory of the storm: 

O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who has set Your glory above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4 What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Heavenly Surprises

Well, I mentioned in my last post that I had lots to catch you up on.  And I mentioned that we were in Texas.  Did you catch that? 

The first thing I think I should tell you about is about our new house.  So many of my previous posts were about our home in Virginia.  And I loved it. Leaving that beautiful, 100 year old Craftsman behind, leaving the porch swing, and the view of the Chesapeake Bay was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  As I drove away, headed for Texas, I knew I was doing what was right, what I had to do, and yet, I could feel my heart breaking as I left. 

But our loving Heavenly Father has a way of rewarding us for doing what He calls us to do.  And so I want to tell you about it. 

When I first left Virginia, I headed for Dallas.  I had a daughter and son-in-law and three precious grandsons just north of Dallas, and it was our plan to possibly stay in the Dallas area.  But we weren't sure, so as is my nature, I couldn't just wait until we were sure to look for houses.  Instead, I looked for houses all over Texas.  It is a new state to us, and I know very little about Texas.  So I didn't really know or even pay very close attention to where the homes were.  The important part was determining what we were looking for in a home, what was in our price range, and build the dream of a new life in Texas.  While I was looking, I found a few that seemed ideal.  I would save them, show them to all the family, take votes.  One in particular was a wonderful amount of land, a generous sized house, the front yard looked like a park, with so many flowers!  It already had a barn, and a playset for the grandkids, and had forest and a creek for the kids to explore.  It just seemed like exactly what we would want.  ......And it was under contract within a couple days after I found it.  Still, I had found the kind of property we were looking for, so I began to ask my Heavenly Father to provide us some home that was similar to this one, and to let us know it was the right home when we found it. 

Within a couple months, Darling Husband was offered a position.  Not in Dallas, after all, but in San Antonio.  We were kind of excited about that, since we'd visited San Antonio several years ago.  It's a beautiful city, with patriotic and amazing history, wonderful people, and a culinary heritage that is world famous.  Great place for a couple foodies like us!  We moved, settled in to an apartment while we found a house, and contacted a realtor (who happened to be an old friend I hadn't seen in decades, so that was amazing!) 

We had looked at....maybe 15-20 houses, enough that I was beginning to wonder if we'd be in an apartment forever. That's about the time our realtor said he had a house he thought we'd like to see, that it seemed to fit a lot of what we were looking for. 

As we pulled down the driveway and around the corner to the house, what was sitting there on this beautiful property, but the house!  The house I'd fallen in love with months before, in Dallas.  The house everyone in my family had already been in love with.  The house I thought would be perfect.  The house I asked God for. 

I can hear you now, "But you said it went under contract?"  Yep.  It was.  It was under contract for several months before the contract fell through, and it came back on the market just in time for us to find it.  A wonderful gift from a loving Father. 

So I guess you think my everyday joy today is my house.  Well, I do love my new house.  We are slowly getting acquainted, I'm slowly learning her quirks, and I'm sure one day, I'll love her as much as I loved my Craftsman on the bay. She even has a porch swing, although the view is very different. But today, my everyday joy is my wonderful Heavenly Father, who loves us so much more than we know, and gives us so much more than we deserve. 

My everyday joy today is Matthew 7:11.  If you then, full of your sin nature, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven give all good things to His children who ask Him?    Isn't that a joyful thought, indeed! 

Fates and Friends

Today is 12th night.  January 5 of a new year. So much has happened in my life, I can't even take the time right now to catch you up.  But today, one of my dearest friends messaged me, asking if I would read the first excerpt of a book she's starting.  Will I??? What an honor!  The fledgling beginnings of her book are here on Blogger, so I'm going to try to link them to my page, so you can read them, too.  Because my friend has lived through so much, and her book is going to be so amazing!  I am so proud of you, Nancy!  I'll look forward to reading the rest.

But it was fateful that she would ask me to come to Blogger to read her blog on this day.  Because just two days ago, I sat down with my new planner for a new year, and wrote down in black and white (ok, blue and white, but you know what I mean...)  my goals for the coming year.  I know, I know....'New Year's Resolutions'....the ones everyone makes.....the ones everyone has broken by Groundhog's Day.  I think of mine differently.  I never look at them as 'do or die', 'succeed or fail', 'ultimate life change' kind of resolutions.  I look at them more as 'Here's where you could have done better last year.  Here's what needs to improve by the end of this year. '  And even if  I'm not 100% gung-ho, faithful to every one of them, if I look back at the end of the year, and I can honestly say, 'Hey!  I actually did improve in that area!', then you know what?  I give myself a tiny pat on the back, and a little grace, and we call that one a win.  Does that make me lazy?  Does it make me half-hearted?  I don't think so.  I think it's accepting the personality God gave me, and working - in the way that works for me to make it better.

But back to my planner....I sat down two days ago and wrote in my planner that I was going to try to write something every day.  I'm working on two books.  I have a blog.  I have a lot of relatives who live far away.  I have friends who live far away.  Maybe every day won't be work on my book - although I hope to finish one of them this year.  Maybe every day won't be a letter to a friend.  Maybe every day won't be a new blog post.  But if I work on writing something, my book will get closer to finished.  My blog will revive. My friends and family will know how often I think of them, and how much I love them.  Just the tiny practice of writing every day will improve so much of what I feel are insurmountable goals! 

So it seemed like fate when Nancy brought me to Blogger, and I realized it was exactly one year ago today that I made my last post here on my blog.  A whole year.  A whole year in which, I'll be honest, I often struggled to find the Everyday Joy.  A year in which so much seemed to be going wrong, so many decisions seemed to be the wrong ones.  So much sadness and pain enveloped my soul that some days it was hard to even breathe.  But it was also a year in which many wonderful things happened, many successes were enjoyed, many blessings bestowed.  And a year in which my Darling Husband often encouraged me to restart my blog, because he knows I need to focus more on the Everyday Joys, and not so much on the stuff in between.  Don't we have enough of the stuff in between without focusing on it to attract more?

So, dear reader, here I am again, asking you to give me grace one more time, to join me on this new adventure in a new place, in a new situation, which I'm sure will bring new joys I will love sharing with you in this new year and new decade!

New place, you ask?  Yes, friend,  here's just a teaser on all we have to catch up on....We're in Texas!

But for today,  I'll just end with this...Thank you, thank you Nancy, for being my everyday joy today, for being a dear, sweet friend, and for being a reminder from God today of my New Year's Resolution to write every day.