Dear Reader,
Don’t you just love the paradoxes of spring? (Excuse me while I sneeze.)
Do you feel like Wordsworth’s lonely daffodil one minute and the next minute find yourself blowing in the breeze among a host of yellow fields?
Living in Tennessee, I experience lots of ups and downs associated with this season. There is almost always a need for heat in the early morning, and AC is welcome by the late afternoon.
My neighborhood is teeming with beautiful but odorful Bradford pear trees.
Those of us who suffer with allergies must choose between basking in the beauty of the spring blossoms or staying indoors with tissues in our pockets.
I know some people who love the time change and others who hate it.
Each new season of life brings both joys and sorrows.
Just as Christ died on the cross on Good Friday, He found new life on Easter Sunday morning.
This season of spring gives us all hope for a beautiful tomorrow.
When I was teaching full time, I often reminded my students to think of the ups and downs of life as a blessing. Like a ball that bounces, we can look forward to a high when we’ve experienced a low. When our hearts are attached to an electrocardiogram, we don’t want to experience a flat line. We want to see those ups and downs.
For those of you struggling with the ups and downs of everyday life, remember the words of British author Violet Fane, “Good things come to those who wait.”
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”—Romans 12:12
Personally, my writing journey has been the poster child for this statement, and I am looking forward to sharing more details with you soon. For now, I am happy to report that one of my children’s books has completed the editing process and has moved on to the design team—a small but significant step. Working with an art director and an illustrator has been one of those unexpected delights!
This spring may be filled with delights as well as disappointments, cold as well as warmth, sniffles as well as smiles, rejections as well as acceptances, tragedies as well as triumphs. If we focus on the good and not the bad, we may very well enjoy the season.
“In Your time, in Your time,
You make all things beautiful in Your time.
Lord, my life to You I bring,
With its winter and its spring,
May I fathom everything in Your time.” —Diane Ball
To celebrate this season of lows and highs, I want to give away two lovely picture books that remind us to focus on the hope of Easter, arriving this year at the end of the month. These books, The Dance of Easter and Journey with Jesus, share the message of how God turned tragedy into triumph.
To be eligible to win one of these books, you must be a subscriber to my newsletter at https://joycemccullough.com/newsletter/. If you tag someone who also becomes a new subscriber, your name will be entered into the drawing twice. Winners will be drawn on March 21, 2024.
The following titles would also make great additions to the basket of books you might be giving to the little ones in your own life.
“It’s always safe to dream of spring. For it is sure to come; and if it be not just as we have pictured it, it will be infinitely sweeter.”—L. M. Montgomery
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”—Charles Dickens
Blessings for a happy Easter and a happy spring!
The Literary Lyonesse
Like you, I love spring but not the sniffles.