Frost and Flowers

 My chickens spent the better part of March scratching the heavy layers of leaves off my flower beds, which means I spent the better part of March piling the leaves back on, trying desperately to keep my delicate spring flowers covered up until the right time.

Every time I donned my long sleeves and started covering up those pale greenish yellow shoots, this verse came to me.

“Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” Song of Solomon 2:7

A string of warm days could force the spring flowers up early, and without any cover, a frost could easily damage them. I’ve definitely had years where the blooms died prematurely or the plants never even bloomed at all.

This verse in particular is about love. It’s about letting it “rest” and not forcing it until the right time. But as I was thinking about this verse and protecting my precious flowers, I thought about the things I’m yearning for right now. Fresh veggies straight from the garden, market season, and most of all, for the chance to get published. I’ve spent the winter working hard towards these things, and I’m yearning and dreaming to see the fruit of my labor come to life.

Every time I covered those flowers, it was a reminder to be patient and know there is a time and season for everything.

The New Year and Small Changes

With New Year’s comes resolutions, and often these are big changes we want to accomplish in our lives. It’s easy to want to jump right in, hoping for huge changes with quick results, and then they pitter out before the month of January even comes to an end.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across this photo I took last January. At the beginning of 2020, I had pulled out an old nanowrimo manuscript and decided to start the editing process, hoping to have it ready to send to agents in a few months.

Like any first draft, I slogged through the first edits, wondering how it was possible that I could string so many bad sentences together! I used the bright sticky notes in an attempt to untangle the messy plot, and at times wondered if it would ever turn into something enjoyable to read.

Trying to get the plot figured out!

The next thing I knew, I was adjusting to our crazy lives during covid with the kids at home 24-7, and simultaneously running our busy market garden season while my husband put in a lot of hours at work. Progress on my novel came to an instant halt, but after we settled into our “new normal”, I came back to it a little at a time.

I wasn’t until I saw the picture with the sticky notes that I realized how far that novel has come and how much it has changed! What a difference all the small changes made over the course of a year! It went from a mess to a manuscript, from something painful to read to something fun to read.

Binders with the seven rewrites of the book!

It made me realize that small changes can make a difference, a really big difference. If you can’t do it all at once, try something small, because it might really surprise you where you are and how far you have come a year from now!