closure

March ushered in the burning part of the slash and burn agriculture that is practised here and for days the sky was hazy, daylight eerie and the sun blocked from view. It always felt like the day was almost over, even at 10 am, just because the haze was so thick it totally covered the blueness of the sky and light of the sun.

Everything is dry and dusty and brown and hot. Yet into this dusty-brown dryness bursts of color and fragance have arrived as the fragipani trees and orchids are blooming! Isn't it amazing the way God planned these plants to flourish just when we need to see something fresh and beautiful the most? I LOVE frangipani trees - their simple yet elegant flowers, the sweet yet strong fragrance. And most amazing of all - you can just cut off the branch of a frangipani tree and replant it (just the way it is) and it apparently always starts to bloom again. Which is what seems to have happended with a frangipani branch that was planted in our yard. This year it suddenly bloomed and it is my first time to see bright pink frangipani flowers instead of the usual white ones. Beautiful! No wonder the frangipani is the national flower here!

Now the mango flower showers have set in and washed away some of the haze. The light is brighter and today I actually saw flecks of blue sky. And the grass in our yard is soft and green again instead of prickly and brown. The difference rain can make! Maybe that is why God allows rain and storms and dark clouds in our lives - to help us not to take the green grass for granted.

We have been busy packing up our life here in this house and town and preparing to move to the capital city. I just realized yesterday that this is the place David and I have so far lived the longest since we got married almost 6 years ago. We will have lived here for 3 years and 4 months and maybe that is why it is so hard for me to leave. It feels like home.

And yet it was hard to be here. But since we have made the decision to move on all of the challenges and difficulties seem to have disappeared and all I can think about is how much I love living here and how much I will miss it. It's strange how we often only recall all the good things about something or someone when it's time to say goodbye...

David is gone this week (7 whole days!!!) at a conference so it's up to me to keep the boys happy and pack up the house. Which leaves me little time to get sentimental and ponder on how our lives will change. If anything I am very much looking forward to being able to settle again and upack the boxes and our belongings. And I am looking forward to a new start. Change is always exciting and invigorating and energizing. But part of me is getting tired of constant change. Our next house will be the 5th house of our married life, Dylan's 3rd and Elliot and Ayden's 2nd home (not counting the home we have in Germany) and - I can't believe I'm actually saying this - I'm longing for some permanence. I will most likely feel different once everything is unpacked but for now permanence sounds kind of nice.

But I am thankful for the 3 years we had here, the friendships we have built, the feeling of home, the difficult times that have taught me much, the beauty around me that has refreshed my soul and caused me to look to the Creator. And, applying all that I have learned about frangipani trees, I will strive to bloom where God is planting me next.