I love it when faith and hope are rewarded.

It's happened so many times in my life that it's getting easier to have the patience that is sometimes required to allow a satisfactory ending.

This time it was just a simple little thing. Plants I've loved and nurtured for years were caught outdoors in an unexpected freeze last November while I was having an unexpected surgery. Three types of ferns, a monster begonia, jade, mums, impatiens to name a few. I was too heartbroken when I first discovered them to deal with tossing them ... just moved everything up to the patio and out of sight.

Later, when I felt up to it, I started to clear away the mess and decided to wait and see if anything came back. I did cut away most of the obviously dead matter ... and placed all the ugly, stub-filled pots back into the sunny areas -- though it was hard to look at them remembering how lush and lovely they were before the freeze. I continued to keep the soil moist throughout the winter and was extra careful to move or cover them during freeze temps ...

... and happily at last look most everything is putting out new growth. In fact this impatien has already graced me with one tiny, perfect little bud.

If I look back on my life experiences I've had this same
"hold-on" stubborness at other times. I just can't seem to let go of things and people in which I've invested part of my heart. More than once"You just can't let go, can you ... ?" has been shouted in my direction.

Well, frankly ... NO.

Friends behaving badly? ... hang on, they'll come around. Romance in a funk? ... so what, it's not dead; breathe some life into it! Job going nowhere? ... push it! Thankless volunteer tasks in the church/community hitting a wall? If we quit now, we'll never know what seeds were planted!

So it's just my way it seems - to hold on and have faith. And it's workin' for me. Why change now? ;-)

"My job is to take care of the possible and trust God with the impossible."

~ Unknown

"Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark. "

~ Scandinavian Saying