The Dead of Winter – A Happy New Year?


crocus_flower_drops_snow_spring_awakening_20861_1024x768wallpaperThe dead of winter. The days are short, the sun doesn’t shine, the cold keeps us inside shivering and wishing we were a species that hibernated. Right? Eating all that food at Thanksgiving to stock up for the long winter’s nap and wake up in the Spring a skinny new you!

Well, that’s the way I look at winter. I’ve never been a snow bug or a cold person. I like the Spring, the Summer and the Fall, but you can keep winter. I secretly envy all you who do not have to endure this wretched season.

But in this chronic illness, I have come to appreciate the quietness and purpose of the winter. Without the darkness and dreariness of the winter day, there would be no amazing Spring fever. I have such an appreciation for winter because in my spiritual and physical winter, I regained and regenerated for a more “blooming Spring”.

No, I didn’t come out of it younger, prettier, stronger or with less flaws……I came out of it with a new perspective. I came into a new Spring with a change of direction, a calling, a fulfilling purpose. I came out of it stronger emotionally and spiritually. My faith had grown deep roots, even in the dead of winter.

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19)

I pray for each of you that if you are in the middle of your winter, you brace yourself mentally and physically because your Spring is coming. A change of season comes for us all. The tides of life shift and change and never stay the same. There will be a change of season.

Some come rolling in like a Lion and just like that boom the new season has come. Some changes in season come in slowly and quietly like a Lamb so that you have to look back to realize you are in it. And unfortunately, some seasons ease in and out, waiting and calculating the landing on solid ground so that you question whether it is here to stay. But there will be a change of season. It always comes.

This New Year as you take stock of last year and like many of us, pray that THAT year is behind you and it will not leak into the new one, don’t make any resolutions. Don’t make a wish list or throw a pity party that makes your neighbors call the cops. Grab hold of the HOPE that a new season will come. Look forward not behind. Laugh three times a day.

This New Year I am celebrating and rejoicing at the close of a season in our home. Because the tides turn. There will be some years I will weep at the change of season like when my children grow up and leave the house. Some seasons come with sadness and some go with sadness, but they all turn.

A wise warrior mommy friend said it so eloquently, she doesn’t make New Years Resolutions, she just resolves to be a better version of herself each day.

That my lovely Lyme warriors and friends is the best advice EVER. One day at a time is the best way to reach a goal and a new season. One day, one moment, one goal, one season.

Happy and Blessed New Year to all my friends near and far,

Blessings and healing,
Janice Fairbairn – The Lyme Evangelist

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