Hope

Everyone needs it. Everyone wants it. Right now, hope is a little hard to come by on some days. I need to work harder and look closer to find it if I’m honest. I need to be more intentional about where my gaze is and where my thoughts are focused. I find I need to “return to the route” as my GPS is so fond of telling me, when I get off course or go adventuring down a side road.

Therefore, I look around for reasons to hope. Currently, we have 2 nests of baby birds in our backyard with parents diligently feeding and protecting their babies. They bring back worms and harass anything that ventures into our backyard. Their busyness is for a future day – a day when their babies will leave the nest and raise their own babies.

So, I work, I am busy, doing the things of normal life, tending plants, feeding chickens, having difficult conversations, and praying. I do these things for a future day when life will return to normal, even if it is a different normal, hopefully, a better normal. A day when the things we thought we needed are replaced by the things we actually need, and we are enjoying one another again, with a new appreciation for time spent together.