SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!

Posted on by michellethurman2344

Although spring wasn’t officially here, according to the calendar, until March 20th, here in Northern California we have had spring like weather since January. We kept waiting for winter to arrive and it did in the mountains around us and northward to Oregon and Washington state, but here in the valley temperatures stayed mostly above 50’s….reaching into the 70’s in January and 80’s in February. Comments were made about winter skipping us altogether! While in other parts of the country a polar vortex brought temperatures into record minuses and power failures, here we were hoping for a little of that cold and maybe some snow. Didn’t happen.

But spring is an unsettled season and this week we have gone from temperatures in the 70’s and sunny – to temps falling into the low 50’s and cloudy. We had quite a bit of rain last week; so we are starting to get some wet weather which is welcome; but seasonally things seem topsy turvy!

My little apricot tree has blossoms all over it and the bees have been happily flitting from one blossom to another; the little lemon tree is getting ready to bud out, and all the roses are pushing out new leaves and starting to bud.

All across the valley orchards are in full bloom or just past blooming, trees are pushing out new leaves, grass is green and growing everywhere. As far as the plants are concerned it’s spring, even without much of a winter; so the rains will come in spring instead of winter and maybe that will be our new normal. Can’t really tell these days. Nature goes on in spite of pandemics and bad government; stolen elections and poor leadership; and God is still on the throne – sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords; until the end of all time when all seasons and all nations will cease. And….until then…we just need to trust in Him and follow Him. He says he is exposing corruption and evil in our land….then that is what He is doing. We have our part – to trust and obey – and He will do the rest. But we do have a part and that means we have to learn what that is by reading His word and listening to His voice. What is He telling each of us to do? Stand up, stand firm, be bold and put our hand to whatever He gives us and do the best we can.

It’s like my garden. I prune and dig up, replant, take cuttings and pot them so they can take root and I replant them. I move one plant from here to over there, or perhaps remove a plant altogether. My sister and I are having our kitchen redone, along with some other small projects; and we contracted for a new fence…..which we thought would be by now but the installers have been busy trying to catch up with jobs they sold in October! So many fires throughout Northern California this past year and the year before that people are now trying to rebuild, creating a building boom in our neck of the woods. So we wait for the fence, while the kitchen is half way done and looking good. But…it is amazing how much work goes into all the parts you don’t see after the job is finally finished. Some of the structure (the floor) had to be redone, electrical had to be redirected, new water pipes put in, holes repaired and now texturing the wall. Then we can start putting in the cabinets, the countertop, and the new flooring.

It helps me to understand what God is doing in our nation. He’s pruning, removing rotten parts, repairing damaged places and getting it all ready for the “great awakening”, which is actually already starting. The thing is, you can’t do all the cosmetic stuff….the pretty finishes and nice touches, until the basics are taken care of. So many were disappointed and upset with the inauguration and everything that has happened since the election and many felt let down. But God didn’t fail; He is working to rebuild, repair and restore the structure and foundation of the America that He established; then the rest will follow.

Watching Nancy Pelosi and her followers in D.C. is almost comical. They have walled themselves in….even though most of congress has apparently gone home, fences with rolls of barbed wired because they are afraid of being attacked and are trying to bring in more armed security forces…..but they told America that we didn’t need a wall at our southern border because “walls don’t work”. HMMM, makes you wonder doesn’t it? Why walls don’t work along the border, but do work around the capitol? All the riots and burning, looting, and violence last summer was just people protesting and they had a right to protest, but….when the protest was taken to Washington it was an “insurrection”? Seems like a pretty poor insurrection when nothing changed, there was no burning and most of the people going into the capitol seemed more bemused than dangerous. And now Washington D.C. is closed in and shut off from the people while Pelosi and her crowd go happily on their way telling everyone how they are making a difference for America.

A long time ago, one of my aunts and her husband raised rabbits. I remember from one of my visits watching a female rabbit building a nest from the big fluff of hair on her chest that had grown just for that purpose….how she went about preparing for her babies birth. The problem was that the little rabbits had already been born and she tore them to pieces and their little bodies were scattered all across the hay under her pen.

That’s what I see when I watch what is happening in our capitol. They have shut themselves off from the people and destroyed everything that reminded them of President Trump and now they are continuing on like they still have a place and a purpose; while in truth they have made themselves irrelevant. In their “walled” fortress, they will become more isolated and separated from the nation, while America will go forth and rebuild, renew and restore all that has been taken from them. We will go forward, because God has His hand on us. He has promised to heal our land, expose the corruption, and bring us back to our roots in Him. This He is doing, and congress will either submit or become completely cut off from the rest of the nation. However it is accomplished, I choose to trust in God and lean not into my own understanding of the how’s.

I try not to think about politics and I don’t watch the news. Most of the news is so slanted and misconstrued that it is virtually mythical in its essence, and I would rather know what God is saying than the fake media. When I do watch the news I go to the Victory Channel, or I pick up headlines from my email page. God has given me a direction to turn my energy towards and when not listening to Him or following His pathways, I work in my garden. In the photos above you can see my water lilies coming up and my papyrus reflected in the water. I am hoping for blossoms on the lilies this year and I need to trim back the papyrus and divide the roots for replanting. I am going to be adding a smaller pond to this one and try to create a spillway between the two. The other photo is of some of my succulents. They have grown a lot since last year. I love their color which is why I bought them. Succulents come in so many colors, shapes and varieties and they are among my favorite kinds of plants.

So spring….here I am. So much renewal going on in my life: new kitchen, new windows, new flooring, new garden areas, new fences……and new future here in Northern California as God moves us forward into things He has prepared for us. It’s exciting and full of promises and hope.

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Published by michellethurman2344

I was born in California, but both my parents were born in different areas of rural Oklahoma. My father grew up on a small cattle ranch and my mother grew up in the hills of eastern Oklahoma near the Ozark Mts. Both were born in the 1920's when Oklahoma was still more a part of the 1800's than the twentieth century so I like to say I was born of parents who were the last generation born during the old west. Their old west roots had a huge impact on my childhood. I spent the first three years of my life on my Granny's chicken farm. She was my father's grandmother and she owned 60 acres of alfalfa which she rented out and lived on three acres of barnyard where she raised chickens. There was some electricity, but no indoor plumbing outside of a faucet in the kitchen. The toilet was down the boardwalk in a small shed...in other words...an outhouse. The shower was a room under the water tank in the pumphouse. Granny's little three room house was the only painted building on the property. Everything else was raw, unpainted wood including the two room house my parents lived in. And I loved living on that little farm where I pretty much had free run of the barnyard and sometimes even wandered into the fields surrounding it. The town where I was born is along the Colorado River in the middle of the California desert and across the river from the Arizona desert and while we did live there for the first 12 years of my life, we moved a lot due to my father's employment. He was a big equipment operator and we moved to where the work took him, but usually only six months of the year then we moved back to our hometown. We moved to Northern California in 1958 and I have lived here ever since. I am a mother, a grandmother, have one great-grandchild and recently retired. I am divorced and now live with my youngest sister. My sisters and I like to cruise and take road trips. I am enjoying my life.

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