There’s nothing like baby animals to get “likes” on Facebook. I posted a video of our new baby chicks earlier this week and had a flurry of activity from friends and family. They are an absolutely adorable addition to our menagerie. Our hens have slowed down their egg laying so we needed to add to our flock. In just about 4 months, these girls will be ready to start laying eggs of their own. They are so cute now but so much work at this stage. It’s amazing how almost overnight, they change from little fluff balls to full-grown chickens.
All of life moves along at such a rapid pace. One minute we’re complaining about getting up in the night to feed the baby and the next thing we know, our child is off to college. I’ve had many conversations over the years with new moms about this very thing. In a moment, our children are grown and gone. When they are little, it may seem like a struggle, but pause for just a few seconds to let each experience wash over you. This particular time will never happen again. Enjoy it.
Every season in life has its heartaches and its joys. They travel together like parallel railroad tracks. I heard this analogy a long time ago and it stuck with me because it’s so true. We would like to think that life is like a series of valleys and mountains. “If only…I get through this hard time then everything will be great.” But, as we are completing one challenge, another one comes from an area we didn’t think was an issue at all. The real challenge is to see the joy interspersed within the struggle.
I will be the first to admit that I can have a difficult time seeing the good within the challenging times in my own life. Just recently, my husband and I finished a big renovation project on a house we have had as a rental for the past 11 years. We put it on the market the end of January and the sale closed today. To say that this whole project was a financial burden, is an understatement. I feel a great sense of relief that it is over… at last! Tim, on the other hand, is feeling a bit melancholy. It was his house when we married. His kids were little when he lived there. He bought it when he was newly divorced. There were many tears but also much laughter in this house. During the renovation, each of his children came at different times to help us with the project. There’s nothing much better than working alongside your kids to get a glimpse into what’s going on in their heads. There were numerous deep conversations on the roof and in the crawl space, while painting and doing plumbing. This was the joy within the struggle.
Who could predict that this would happen? Only the heart could know. The older I get, the more I can affirm it, some good always comes from what appears to be bad. Usually I only see it in retrospect. The best lessons and memories are made during these times of struggle…and there will always be struggle in this life…always. But there will also always be joy to be found within it….guaranteed.
What a joy it is to read your blog and to reflect on how quickly my own children and grandchildren have grown. The hard times in life are like a pearl being refined by sand…always there to remind us how precious life truly is.