Wildfires…living in a tinder box

NEW WILDFIRES BURNING……

A passerby captured this photo as the firefighters were springing into action.

This morning I am feeling incredibly anxious due to the current situation facing the area where I live.  Although there is no immediate danger at this time the smell of smoke and the haze from the wildfires to our north have left my heart racing. 

We live in a beautiful wooded area.  Our immediate neighbors are deer, rabbits, owls, armadillos, the occasional opossum and dozens and dozens of beautiful birds.  Living in this area has so many wonderful benefits; incredibly quiet days and the darkest nights that give way to millions of stars. 

I can look out any window in my home and see rabbits nibbling on the wildflowers.  I can turn and gaze through another window and a small herd of deer are meandering along the edge of the property.  When I step outside there is a gentle rustle in treetops as the squirrels scurry about foraging for their next meal.  And all the while the air is filled with the sweet songs of birds calling to one another.

However, today is a bit different.  My piece of mind is a bit shaken.  As beautiful as our wooded wonderland is..it is also a tinder box.  Our area is incredibly dry from months upon months of little to no rain.  Our lawns no longer resemble manicured golf course greens. They more likely resemble dried up hay fields. The wooded areas are full of dead dried up trees that have succumbed to the drought conditions.  The dried underbrush and dead grasses are natural kindling.  What was a cool comfortable breezy September patio dining day is now just fuel for the fires. 

My heart aches for those who are in the path of these fires, those who are fighting the fires and for the beautiful landscape that will be changed for years and years.  If you are a praying person please pray for our firefighters, the families who have lost everything and the wildlife that has been affected.  If you are not a praying person please send good thoughts our way. 

I am keeping an eye on the sky and my computer tuned to the news stations for developing stories..I am more anxious today than when I have been faced with an impending hurricane, even a category 4.

Spiritual Renewal

The State of Texas is experiencing the worst drought on record.  Lakes are drying up, wildfires are raging, farms are turning into dust bowls and cattle ranchers are being forced to sell their livestock due to the lack of hay. 

I have watched the cracks in our yard grow deeper and wider.  And despite our best efforts to water our lawn and flower beds the weaker plants are dying off.  I have also watched several brown patches in our lawn spread like a cancer.  The fern that grows on the oak tree branches has appeared to shrivel and dry-up beyond any measure of hope that it will return.

Everyday we pray for Rain.  We pray expectantly.  We pray without ceasing.  We watch the skies.  We rejoice as the rain clouds appear.  We fall silent as they disappear without dropping a trace of rain.  

Then just this week we were blessed with 2 days of rain.  Mind you it wasn’t very much rain.  Just a 1/4″ each day.  Oh but what that 1/2″ of rain has done for the flowers and the grass and the fern in the oaks.   The flowers are blooming, the brown patches in the lawn have new blades of green grass springing up and the fern has been resurrected.  Even the birds seem to be singing and rejoicing because they know that their needs have been met.

I have been experiencing my own personal drought.  As the earth dried up so did my verve for life.  I began to lose interest in several of the things I enjoy doing.  Writing this blog, collecting junktiques, working in the garden, pulling the pesky weeds and even cooking in my beautiful kitchen. 

Then it occurred to me this morning as it has on previous occasions that just as the rain fell and began to renew the plants and animals, so had God renewed my spirit.  It seems that as the rain fell it literally began to wash the dust and cobwebs from my spirit.  I rejoiced in the smell of the wet earth, the puddles on the drive-way and the cooler damp temperatures.

God showed me that no matter how bleak things may seem HE  is always at work, working things out for those who believe in HIM.

No matter how much watering I do on my own it will never be enough.    I have an inherent need of Gods renewing spirit.  He sends it in different ways every day.  We just have to learn to recognize it when it shows up.

It comes with the refreshing rain after a long drought.  It comes with the bright sunshine after a torrential downpour.  It comes in the encouraging words spoken by a co-worker.  It comes in the comments of my blogging buddies.  It comes with the development of a new friendship. It comes in a hug from my 22-year-old  son.  It comes in the knowing wink from my husband. 

God knit me together in my Mothers womb and knows the number of hairs on my head.  I am wonderfully and beautifully made to be exactly who I am.  He designed a plan to prosper me and not to harm me, a plan to give me hope and a future.  He sends people into my life to help me grow and become the Girl he designed me to be.  Ultimately my life is made up of my own choices, but when I make choices that are with-in Gods will for my life, I am Blessed beyond measure and my cup is filled to over-flowing. 

Hebrews 11:1  “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”