What I Learned This Spring

I'm joining Emily P. Freeman's quarterly post link-up today of things she's learned in the season just ending.  She writes and shares some of her list every three months--always including the silly and the sacred--and I always mean to start this practice of reflecting, too.  After listening to her latest podcast outlining some of the questions she asks herself, I eagerly sat down and did some reflecting on the past three months of spring.  Here are a few things from my list:

1.  I'll probably never choose the fancy restaurant.

I think I already knew this about myself a little, but it's become really clear in the past few months that going out to eat is just not that important to me.  I've been a little slow to this realization because in certain circumstances, I greatly enjoy going out to eat, and I can see that it's a fun and valid way to spend your time and money, savoring an experience.  But it's just not that important to me.  

On Mother's Day I treated myself to a wrap from the supermarket

filled with things my kids don't eat:  goat cheese, nuts, and beets.

2.  I spent a lot of time looking at cherry trees.

From the first blossoms all the way to the cherry pie at the end, I spent a lot of time with cherry trees this spring.

I couldn't believe I got to be like Anne, with a cherry tree

outside my bedroom window.

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A post shared by Lynn Pugh (@lynn_pugh) on May 29, 2019 at 10:07am PDT

3.  Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo share a crypt.

On Mother's Day I visited the Pantheon by myself before church, and I know it's just their bones, but it made me happy that these two French writers share a room here.  

4.  Humans often blame God for the evil brought into the world by other humans.  

This is not an original thought by any means, but it occurred to me after watching a television show one night and reading a book the next morning.  In both story-lines a character assumes God is disinterested, non-existent, or that He created a world without order based on the bad things we're all affected by, and it struck me how upside down that thinking is.  Don't get me wrong, I've engaged in it myself.  When we're in pain we wonder what the point is and we think that perhaps if there is a God He might not care after all.  

But what if there is a God who's very interested?  What if He created a world of immense order and all that is disordered and evil didn't enter into the world by His hand?  And what if He's already executed the rescue mission that will rescue and restore all that was broken? 

5.  A well-stocked fridge, freezer, and pantry gives me great peace of mind.

I convinced K.J. we should join Costco last month, and I get so much joy out of having enough meat on hand to feed us for two weeks.  I'm positively buoyant when I push that heavy cart out the door.  This week I saw a group of corporate Americans there touring the store (it's the first one in France), and I resisted the urge to hug them and thank them personally.  

What have you learned this spring?