Happy First Day of Spring!

"Rise up, my love, my fair one,

and come away.

For lo, the winter is past,

the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs, 

and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!"

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

I'm confused.  Google says today, March 19th, is the first day of Spring. My wall calendar says it isn't until tomorrow, March 20th.  So I had to look it up on the computer, HERE: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/spring-equinox-first-day-spring, and according to the Farmers' Almanac it is today, the earliest it has been in 124 years! Maybe because it's a Leap Year and we had that extra day in there...that could have thrown things off a bit too...but if you read the article, it explains it in more scientific terms.  So, after all that, I guess after 11:50 pm tonight we can officially say it is spring!

Well, no one had to tell these guys that it was spring! They've had it figured out all week long. Apparently it is "mating season" for the Canadian Geese, and we've actually had two couples vying for territory on our not so peaceful "Still Waters Pond".  If you are a Facebook friend, you can actually hear their frolicking on a couple of videos that I have posted.

In this picture below, that male goose is charging toward another male goose to tell him to stay out of his territory...

Their rituals involve much honking and challenging all night long as well as all day long....

And with two different couples going through this loving event at the same time, it can get quite noisy out there on the pond.

 Sometimes they just swim around like normal, enjoying the warm almost summer like days we have been having...

 But then pretty soon they start up their honking again just to let us know they are still there, and they are still "enjoying" each other's company!

As I've said on Facebook, they are definitely not  practicing "Social Distancing" like we've all been told to be doing during this current Coronavirus Pandemic!  Hopefully this virus has nothing to do with our wild kingdom, and life will go on as natural for them.  The upside to all of this noise and excitement is that I hope they will decide to make their nests here on our pond and that we will get to enjoy watching them raise their little goslings when the time comes.  Should make for some great entertainment.

So, switching stories here for a moment, how are all of you adapting to the current "Social Distancing" adventure in your neck of the woods, or corner of the pond? 

By now, it appears that just about everything is shutting down except for necessary services and thankfully not the grocery stores, although they have reduced their hours.  Our church has cancelled services and activities for the rest of March.  I was just looking at the calendar, and realizing that Easter will be coming up soon after that on April 12th.  I certainly hope and pray we will all be able to open our church doors wide to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord...and the resurrection of healthy living again in our land. That would be a wonderful blessing for Easter!

In the meantime, we must each find ways to honor and worship our Lord in our homes and make this a special, personal time of communion with Christ.  I know many churches have ways of live streaming services to our homes, but our little church doesn't have any such modern technology, and besides, that would require our Pastor and leaders to still have to be there to "perform" this service, so quite frankly I think we should all just find ways to worship the Lord on a personal level and enjoy a time of being still before the Lord.

I find just taking time to find a quiet place, away from the distractions of the television and computer, and sit peacefully before the Lord, praying, reading His Word, writing in my journal, and perhaps even singing some spiritual songs, is a wonderful way to worship.

This is my little outdoors sanctuary, where I can spend time with the Lord, enjoying His beautiful creation around me.

 As I have been recuperating from my surgery, I have found this part of our back yard to be a cool respite from the "world"... a place to forget about the "news", and just enjoy being God's child.

I know for many of you it is still "winter", even though the calendar says it is now "Spring". But even if you can't go outside, I hope you can find a little secluded place in your home where you can "Be Still, and know that I Am God"  (Psalm 46:10) for a while. Don't just wait until Sunday morning...do it as often as you can. It is truly refreshing and comforting to spend that time alone with the Lord in prayer and meditating on His Word.

Okay, that's my thoughts for today.  Oh, tomorrow I go to get my staples out of my incision. I will be very happy to get those little metal things out of there. Day by day I am getting better, but still working towards getting back to some kind of "regularity" and normal. 'nuf said'. 

Have a blessed and beautiful day, and as you "shelter in place", make it a place of peace and joy and praise!! Amen!