“If you choose not to have joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.” ~Walt Humphries

Friends. This is my new favorite quote. It encapsulates so many imporant lessons for all of us. We can substitute many, many other words, phrases, and ideas in the place of the word snow. For me, heat and sweat are monumentally less pleasant than snow so I will choose to replace the word snow with those two villainous ideas when summer creeps around the corner and pounces heavily upon my back this year.

As I walked our younger dogs around the farm in the gentle, misty rain this morning, I thanked God for the ever-changing seasons on our farm. I went so deeply in my level of thankfulness that I even thanked him for my least favorite season, summer. Summer is HARD for me, Folks. I am highly allergic to all kinds of plants so I have to wear long sleeves and long pants all summer long when I venture outside. Even then, I frequently contract poison ivy or oak from one of our beloved animals when I inadvertently pet them after they have frollicked in the plants. The heat is unbearable and I just generally don’t enjoy the summer months even though I was a teacher my entire career and was off of work during the summer months!! That says a lot!! I would much rather be walking briskly in the cool breeze or hiking outside in the mountains or skiing in the snow.

Today, I walked around our land while small pin-pricks of rain and ice gently hit my face. It made me feel alive and I thanked God for the wintry weather that has arrived here in Central Texas today. Out here deep in the heart of Texas, we are becoming more resilient and accustomed to wintry weather. In the past couple of years, we have actually experienced heavy snowfall similar to blizzard conditions and a huge ice storm that completely shut down Central Texas two years ago because our infrastructure has not learned to be quite as resilient as the residents of Texas!!

My new favorite quote above is a game changer for me. From now on, I will remember that I have a choice. I can either find joy in the heat, the snow, the cold, the ice, the rain, the sleet, or actually any other uncomfortable season or situation I find myself experiencing OR I can still have the same exact amount of each of those experiences WITHOUT the joy. The choice seems very obvious to me. I will embrace each of them with all of their possible discomfort and find ways to experience joy in the midst of it all.

What will you choose to do?