So Good

What is it about this season? And is it the season outside that has made me so reflective lately, or is it perhaps the season of my heart right now? As the weather transitions quickly from fall to winter, it seems that my heart is transitioning into a time equally as poetic and graceful as the fluttering flurries and flakes outside my window today. God has given me the gift of contentment, and what a marvelous gift. I'm learning what it means to appreciate things, to truly appreciate them for what they are, allowing them to just fill and warm me up, to just be able to dwell on them for a bit and savor what they are.

Right now, I'm learning about gifts...not my own gifts, but gifts that are given to me. Never have I seen so many gifts given to me in my life than right now. Time with family, a beautiful snowfall, Christmas concerts, chapel and church services, holiday parties...they are all gifts. People have worked hard to give me such gifts. How can I not have a deep appreciation for them? Last night, I went to a program on campus called Christmas on the Quad. It was a magnificent performance of bell choirs, several choirs and instrumental groups on campus followed by the lighting of the official campus Christmas tree. My heart was torn with emotions, half was swelling with appreciation and gratitude for the gift presented, and the other half was stomped on by those who did not appreciate the gift at all. My eyes welled with tears more than once for both sides of my heart. How can I teach gratitude? Can it be learned? I want so desperately to teach it to others so that their hearts can be full and contented as mine is.

In my quarterlife days, I find myself, not struggling over where or who I should be, but rather, I find myself finally breathing deep the goodness that life has to offer. I can feel the wonder and magic of tradition and the building of memories. I can feel God working in my life to refine me further and bring me closer. How thankful I am!

I want to share this with everyone. I want to spread this feeling....but how? How do you show someone the way to contentment? To love? To wonder and gratitude? To a full heart? Oh, I wish I knew. I wish you could know this as I do right now. How I pray that I will never turn back from this. It is so good.