Springtime

This morning, I had breakfast barefooted outside.  Seriously...I sat on the front steps and enjoyed the sunshine and the view while I ate my frosted flakes.

 I think spring time is one of the best seasons for me.  I love seeing all the trees turn green and the first flowers bloom.  Out here the daffodils are wild.  My guess is that at one time they were part of someones landscape, but now, the pop up in various places in the yard and in the fields around us.  This morning, the irises are in full bloom...well, so far the two purple ones that popped up on either side of the driveway are in full bloom.  I'm sure there are more scattered along the road, but I didn't go look.  

Our mimosa trees are starting to bud also.  They have got to be my most favorite.  I'm not sure what it is about them that facinates me most.  I remember them from when I was a kid.  There were two that were in front of my great grandma and grandpa's house that we used to climb in and there were 2 along the side of my grandma and grandpa's house...we climbed in those too.  My grandpa would tie strings with aluminum pie pans in those trees to scare off the black birds. We also had one in our own backyard, but I don't remember it ever being big enough to climb in. The ones at my great grandparent's were eventually cut down, the trees at my grandparent's we cut down for a new drive way to be put in and the one in our own back yard was cut down too....for a rabbit barn.  The original ones here were big enough that my own kids were able to climb in them.  Unfortunately, after the tornado in 2003, we lost them.  We lost almost all our trees.  The following summer, small mimosas started coming up.  Today, 9 years since the tornado, we have several mimosas at the corner of the driveway, one at the side of the house and several small ones along the road that have survived the county mowing them down season after season.  None are big enough to climb in now, but by the time grand kids come along, they will be there for them.  There is nothing sweeter than the smell of the pink flowers.  They remind me that nothing can keep them from continuing to grow...mow them down, they come back, take them out with a tornado, they come back, bulldoze them to build a new house...and they come back. I try to be the same way...knock me down and I'll come back.  Stronger?  I'm not sure about that yet...but I won't give up.  No matter what life has thrown at me, I'm still here.  Battered and beaten sometimes, but I'm still going.  God made me that way.  He gave me the tools I need...I just have to keep pushing through.  He never said it was going to be an easy road.