Spring is on it's way!

As I sit and contemplate life with my trusted companion I just kept thinking... when is Spring going to come...

My Southern California roots are showing. I do enjoy having the seasons but I find my heart wanting warmer weather each day. I walk to work everyday and my shoes have worn down so that the water comes through the bottom on rainy days like today.

But I love that I can walk to work everyday! In the Fall I got to enjoy the pretty leaves as they changed and last month we had a couple days of snow, some days it rains, but many days the sun does shine and I get to watch ducks in the river and hear the birds flying overhead. I am looking forward to Spring to be in full swing, though I also want to live today to the fullest. I have been growing up in many ways... I have actually started cooking and packing a lunch/dinner for work (not everyday yet but many of them ;). My apartment is the cleanest it has been since the week I moved in, and I plan on keeping it so that I would have no embarrassment if someone dropped by unannounced. I have been getting up earlier so that I can get stuff done in the morning before work. I am connecting more and more with other women and have used to my walk to work these past weeks to pray for others.. God has placed different people on my heart at different times.. some in Japan, some in California, and other places as well. I have been so blessed to meet so many wonderful people around the world. So, I still have much growing to do though it is good to celebrate the steps forward along the way... I am doing well and looking ahead to better and brighter days!

My word for 2012 is Illuminate! In one sense it is for me.. that God will illuminate in me so I might see more clearly who I am and what I need to do; surrender, confess, forgive, heal, etc... and it also represents my deep desire this year for God to illuminate through me to bring light, hope, and freedom to those around me! Before I came to Japan God brought to me through others that I would make an lasting impact here even if it might not be so visible at first. I trust the Holy Spirit that He is working all of the time and any part He uses me in I am delighted to be of service. I tend to like and want tangible things yet in my journey of surrender this has been very freeing.. to not know all the details. That has increase my faith and helped me to let go of needing to know everything! It's okay to not know sometimes and now I am also learning to let go of being understood all the time. Both of those are difficult for me but the Freedom in Jesus is so much better... I want to make you understand but that is not my job... I feel a sentiment of Jesus' message was an invitation to take look and if you see fit after weighing what you find in Him to follow, then follow. If not, that is your choice. So, I am praying for Jesus to illuminate in and through me and I welcome anyone who wants to take look, go ahead.

Feb it snowed!

The flowers are here! March.

I pass this little field of trees on my way to work. I enjoy them all the time even though they were just bare until the snow covered them last month. Then the weather got a tiny bit warmer and a couple of the trees started to flower. I think they are some sort of fruit tree because I heard the plum trees flower around this time. Each week more of the trees were getting there flowers and so I took the first pic in Feb. and the second just last week. And next month I will get to go see some cheery blossoms!! Pictures of those to come after spring is fully here! So, like these trees; bare, snow covered, flowering, and maybe fruit to come soon.. our journeys have beauty, harshness, neutrality, joy, and sorrow...  yet I find joy and beauty every time I pass these trees in each season. There is also joy that is available to all of us and beauty to be found no matter where we are in our journey. Have a beautiful day, week, month and Spring!