Spring came late to my heart this year.
After cold, darkened winter days, my optimism usually begins to simmer in January.
Hope breaks through any lingering clouds in February. By early March the
last ice crystals of doubt have melted away.
This year was different.
Over the course of last fall and a too long winter, my family became engaged
in a battle. A clash over values, perceptions, and beliefs, the turf war
unfolded right in our backyard. We were trying to live our lives as usual, but
life as we know it may never be the same.
My family is not perfect by any means, nor do we claim to be. But we're
trying to do our best to live our lives the way we perceive we should.
So are those on the opposing side of the conflict.
We first met them in our driveway. They were making a drug deal right under
our security lights. Within days, our house was broken into. Two more break-ins
occurred within coming weeks. Hastily installed security cameras revealed our
yard as a major thoroughfare for crime. Law enforcement surveillance revealed a
shocking number of people were involved. Cynical phone
calls, cyber stalkers, and twisted emails were proffered as calling cards to
greet us each day.
A coldness, deeper than the season, settled into me.
By March, my soul brimming with negativism, I realized I needed to tip the
scales back the other way.
I started a gratitude journal.
I discovered that the seemingly simple act of finding and focusing on one
good thing each day can yield a bounty of goodwill. In my soul, the sun once again began to shine
bright.
I am
achingly grateful that
there are more good, honest people in the world than those who choose
otherwise. I sincerely appreciate their hope, optimism, and kindness, and their determination to light the way for those
navigating darkness.
Today, Anne Frank would have been 83 years old.
Her words continue to reach beyond the circumstances of her tragic death to guide and
inspire us: “I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still
remains.”
Thank you, Anne. And Happy Birthday!
