Boots...

There is a line of demarcation across the world, dividing those of us who live with winter for half the year, versus those who don't.  (I didn't say we're smart - I'm just reporting, here.)  In the warmer, sunnier climes, people don coats and even boots at the dip of the mercury like a man in the desert gasping for water - you can't wait to wear them because they are cute or trendy, but you don't, strictly speaking, really need them for survival.  Frankly, I find this bewildering.

Up here in the northland, boots are a practical, functional piece of footwear, required to slog through six or ten or 15 inches of white fluffy stuff without getting soaked to the skin or losing a foot to frostbite.  They are not a fashion statement, they are a necessity, and most people put off getting them out (along with the heavy winter coats that weigh more than our first child) until we simply cannot wait any longer, because we know we will be stuck wearing them for months.  You see photos of people in LA and Miami wearing Uggs and fur coats, and, at least if you are from north of the line, you have to wonder what the point is, really.  Because in our world, we can't wait to put them away, again.

It is now mid-March, so we still have a couple feet of snow on the ground, but I am tired of my boots.  Yesterday, for the first time in months, I pulled out my cute little shoes to wear.  They aren't warm and they aren't practical for a Minnesota March day, but wearing them made me feel better - a harbinger of spring, and warmer days to come.  If I am wearing actual shoes - can Easter be far off?   At which point summer (nirvana) is just around the corner, although Easter is early this year, which is always a disappointment.  But I digress.

What do boots have to do with anything?  After all, I am grateful for the practical footwear which keeps me warm and frostbite free.  I need them for many months of the year, and I am fortunate to have them.  Not everyone does, and I know I am lucky.

But when I am wearing them, I am longing for a different season, one which I enjoy much more.  I love the sun, and the heat and the smell of fresh cut grass.  I enjoy the fresh air after a thunderstorm, and the feel of a summer breeze on my skin.  I love wearing flip flops and shorts and T-shirts and needing air conditioning.  What I do not love is snow and cold.

But God tells us to take each day as it comes.  In Matthew 6:34 we read

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

While I am longing for the next season to arrive, I am not enjoying what this season has to offer.  This is true, not only of weather, but life generally.  We wish away the years we are given, waiting for the next season to arrive, thinking it will be better for one reason or another, without realizing the joys of the moment.  It is the human condition to be looking  over the fence and seeing the greener grass, and wanting it for ourselves without realizing there are a lot of weeds over there, too, if only we looked closely enough.

Today I am grateful for boots, which not only serve a practical purpose, but which remind me to slow down and enjoy the season I am in.  Tomorrow will come soon enough, with all that I look forward to, but today will be gone and never come again.

Dear Lord, thank you for the boots I wear, and the simple pleasures of this season.  I will try not to anticipate tomorrow, but instead, stop and enjoy this day you have given me.  Amen.