Turning!

​Recently a friend gave me a new-to-me chair… a recliner her mom no longer needed.  I decided to move an old chair I had into what had been the dining room, a room I used more as a craft room.  I pushed the table to the corner, put the comfy chair at an angle looking out into my garden, and a rug on the floor, simple but cozy.  I have had dreams of turning this room into a sun room, knocking out another window and opening it up more, and decided this was the first step.  Each morning since, I’ve sat in the chair, facing out into the garden, the rising sun hitting my face as it travels from behind the lilac bushes across the sky casting long shadows and catching the frost tipped grass and fallen leaves.
Before this, my mornings were spent in the living room, a nice, warm, cozy place.  But it is dark and dreary in the mornings before the sun has made its way around the house.   Often I needed a lamp on to read.
I’ve been amazed at the difference this simple change of perspective has made in my outlook of the whole day.  This turning to face the sun, quietly drinking tea and being in silence, watching the squirrels carry fallen apples across the lawn, the rabbits eating breakfast, the light glistening through the remaining leaves on the trees.  I feel a peace wash over me and a thankfulness sink deep within as God and I welcome this new day.
 
Mary Oliver wrote:
“Why I Wake Early
 
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety –
 
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light –
good morning, good morning, good morning.
 
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.”
 
As the seasons turn, the weather cooling, the leaves falling (or totally gone!), the frost and snow beginning, I wonder if you are being invited to turn too.  Is there a simple change you are being called to make in your life?  A turn you are being requested to make?  A new perspective you are being invited to try on?  A new direction you are being challenged to face?   Try it, and see what happens!

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