Swallows Fidget

 

Swallows fidget on the overhead lines, flitting off and then alighting again in an instinctive dance of beauty and grace. Somehow this annual ritual prepares the wee birds for the massive migration they’re about to make to South Africa.

Young cows line up at the gate as Mary and I pass by, curious to see us. Brambles blacken into a rich, juicy colour; rose hips darken and swell; leaves are beginning to turn from their greens to the fall foliage of russet, orange, yellow and brown.

Change is in the air. Despite the stillness of the day, the blue of the sky, the golden sun – there is an edge of chill causing occasional involuntary shivers.

Wait and watch.

There is a sense in which we are waiting for what we have experienced before. That which is familiar. Sometimes even derided as the same old same old.

But God is the joyful creator who delights to create new things.

May I be on my tiptoes every morning, expectant and eager to glimpse his hand in my life, doing something familiar perhaps, but in a new, and beautiful way.