Hello my friends,
It's been awhile since I've had a turn at this blogging business. I sort of skipped the last time I was assigned to write a blog post and now I'm behind again. Poor Cat, who is always the one to follow me, has to wait for me to get myself in gear before she can write her's. So I think it's time I wrote a blog for once.
The people in this house are always changing. Whether that means new people coming in and old going out or the residents are changing on an individual level. I, personally, am no exception to this. I, like most people, can be an entirely different person from one day to the next. One day I can be the loud, silly member of the house who can't seem to stop dancing. Another day, I'll be the short tempered, bitter man who may be in need of some cheering up. And this has been the case with me for all of my life. It's not unusual. People have seasons. The spring times of our lives are a time when we develop as individuals. New characteristics will blossom and old ones will get new growth. We change, grow and become like new. In our summer times our warmth and light shine out to everyone around us. We have grown during the past season and now we thrive in our developments. Autumns of our lives are when we see a metaphorical bounty produced from within ourselves and give thanks. These are the times when you feel gracious for what you have around and in you. And then there are the winters.
I think I've been in a winter for awhile now. It's a dark time when life seems to come to a stand still. The landscape of your soul is covered in a cold, consuming entity. It looks bleak and uniform. It's easy to lose track of time since it all looks the same outside. You grew during spring and flourished during summer. You've reaped the harvest of your personal growths during autumn. And then your change seems to shrivel and die. It's easy to become disheartened when it seemed like you were growing so much and then it all comes to a screeching halt. All of the time and effort you put in and now it refuses to grow? You ask yourself if you are doing something wrong.
"Am I not nurturing my growth the way it needs?"
"Have I stopped growing entirely?"
"Will I ever develop again?"
You look on at what used to be such an awesome display of progress and see it's rotten. Your triumph of forward development now lies under the expansive, cold blanket that kills your growth. It's easy to become depressed. It's a breeze to become bitter. You will almost certainly become jaded. Winters have a tendency to drag on for longer than anyone ever wants them to. After what seems like an eternity, you resign yourself to the idea that your personal growth is long dead. You lose hope. And then you get accustomed to the cold and the dark. It was daunting at first but now it has just become mundane. It's easy to think all is lost.
But after a long time, you aren't exactly sure how long it's been, you see something new that has grown up out of the uniform covering on your soul. It's small and it isn't impressive but it's new. You don't recognize it. You watch it and you eventually realize that it is growing. It's developing. It's changing. What is this new thing? How should you react to it? You had become reluctantly comfortable in the winter of your soul and now something is coming to change it. Eventually, the vast, cold darkness that stretches over your life begins to recede as this thing keeps growing. This new thing is scary at first. It's so different but it's also exciting.
You come to realize that it is a new development in your life. Something external has come along to start the process of an internal change. New growth begins sprouting up within you. You do all you can to nurture this growth and under your care, it grows large and strong. It blossoms and blooms and the bitterness begins to wear away. The depression lifts. The world seems brighter. You feel happier. A warmth floods your soul and you are filled with joy. Spring has arrived and with it the wonderful promise of change. You can't tell what shape that change will look like when it has developed but you feel it is worth pursuing. Your heart is full and beauty emits from every corner of the earth. Life becomes as wonderful as it once was.
I was in a winter for a couple of months. Nothing terribly serious, However, I was not growing. I wasn't learning anything and I was beginning to lose heart. But since last month, some thing new and wonderful has been growing inside of me. It's growing quickly and it's becoming strong. The cold darkness that had settled on my soul has melted away and only warmth radiates from me now. I feel brand new and even better than I have ever been before. It's become easy to see what a gift life is once again. Spring has settled into my soul and I am so thankful that it has finally arrived. I'm changing and I can definitely tell it's for the better.
I'm sorry I've been absent from here for so long but I'm back, I'm refreshed and I'm ready to go. Don't worry, my friends. I'm still the same loveable character I've always been. I've just got a little extra some thing to make me even better. So goodbye, amigos. I love you all and it's good to be back. Even if you didn't know I had gone anywhere.
Wishing you peace and new growth,
Your buddy, Jeremy
