Today I noticed... {A Writing Prompt Reflection}

I've been doing a 10 day writing challenge using the opening prompt, "Today I noticed..."

I wrote this on Saturday, after we experienced 6 inches of snowfall. Our trees hadn't yet shed their leaves for the winter, and many weren't ready to bear the weight of the snow with the leaves. 

Today I noticed the trees bent with the weight of unlooked-for snow and I thought about the weight of unlooked-for chaos, unlooked-for panic, unlooked-for fear. I know myself-- worry and anxiety are near-constant companions; it is only through my faith in Jesus and a perhaps also overcompensating dose of common sense that I am able to stay grounded. I find chaos, panic, and fear ready-to-hand in nearly any situation; not enough to be paralyzing, but enough to weary, and to strain.

As it is, those constant fear-filled options strike me daily, as if they are simply the weight of the leaves I carry as a matter of course. But when the unlooked-for comes calling, like the snowfall yesterday, coming before the trees had a chance to shed their leaves, will I bend under the weight, or will I break?

The trees in my neighborhood have bent until the sun has melted the fullness of the weight-- there are downed branches in the night, but nearly all survived.

But there is one-- unpruned for years, its heart neglected, grown leggy and long and wild in its independence-- that lost much. Major limbs broken under the weight, seemingly irreparable harm.

But the tree master will come, and will prune the broken limbs, and bind up the broken parts. He will find ways to support the weight as it heals. And though it may take time, this tree will bloom again.

May it be so with us.