Not At All What I Had Expected

It is 50ish degrees outside. The sun is shining and the sun rise this morning was gorgeous. I have a window cracked in the living room and can hear the birds chirping as the wind blows through the branches of the bare tree limbs. I can smell the scent of spring in the air, and although I know that I am many months out from that actual season, I find myself becoming intoxicated with its temporary loveliness.

The temperature is supposed to drop all day long. Tomorrow the high is forecast to be around 30. The wind that is slowly picking up outside will take with it the warm temperature and possibly the sun, but I am okay with this because I had the unexpected gift of this morning's weather.

I never thought that in the month of January the Midwest would bestow upon me both the sun and spring-like temperatures. The weather here surprises me. It never seems to do what I think it will, and I find myself pleasantly surprised more often than I am disappointed.

This morning I put on my jogging clothes and ran around our neighborhood keeping my eyes towards the cloud streaked sky as the sun came into view large and reddish orange. The neighborhood obscures most of the morning skyline, but this morning for reasons I am not quite sure I understand, it was almost perfectly visible.

As I drove Sarah and Josh to the high school  I drove by the same cornfields and farms I always do, and found myself amazed that I get to live in place such as this. I am thankful that we did not choose to live in the fancier part of Indianapolis up north, but instead choose to live in the more humble parts of the city's southern outskirts. The farms within five minutes of our home always make deeply grateful for this place. I find myself giving a prayer of thanks for the privilege of getting to witness their seasonal beauty.

Living here is not at all what I had expected. There is a simple beauty in this landscape that I find to be so healing. It is not the grand nature that I have been exposed to for the past four years living out west, but it is beautiful in its own right. I am finding that there are always blessings to be found - no matter where I am - if only I am willing to receive them with an open heart.