My daily gift from God...

Whenever asked my favorite season, it has always been FALL!!! DEFINITELY!!! without a second thought. While I do enjoy all 4 seasons in Wisconsin... if we only got a month of winter, I would be MUCH happier. Ü

This photo does not do it justice but this is my full glass view from my desk at work, everyday. As you can see in the background, every other tree around is barren BUT right outside my desk, I have this beautiful display of God's artistic creativity! Every night, for at least the past month... as I leave work, I take one last peak and wonder if, tomorrow all the leaves will be down. But everyday... as I round the corner, I am surprised that the tree is still radiant!! And when I am lucky enough to have a day filled with sunshine besides??? WOW!
I have 5 of the same trees in my yard and they have all lost 95% of their leaves! (I know that because I have already raked 5 times!!) I don't know why this tree still has it's leaves but I know that I am blessed, for another day... to have such a beautiful view!

Why is this such a blessing? A year ago, I was suffering from the breakup of a relationship, losing health insurance with a pending divorce AND I was stuck in a cube, staring at a wall, in a darkened room feeling like a mushroom! My job was extremely stressful and although I was supposedly"advancing myself", everyday I felt like I was losing the battle, getting more overwhelmed while being asked to do the work of 3 people... with no end in sight. I was also expected to travel often (as a single mom? RIGHT!)! My boss was a tyrant and not a good person... How could I win?? I dreaded going to work most days but how could I even think of finding time to look for a different job. My days and my spirits were dark and overcast!

When I was suddenly fired... without warning... on top of every other disaster in my personal life... I felt like the world's biggest loser! Along with the additional stress of the divorce, the house for sale and where were we going to live... it was now - what was I going to do for work? Will I even be able to find a job? How will we eat? Would I start all over with vacation? Could it possibly get any darker? It could and it did but...

All I can say is... everything for a reason! Losing my job gave me a lot! It gave me:

• 6 weeks off paid - during a time when my children needed me and I "NEEDED" to be there for them and not working!
• Time to pack and get my house ready to move when it sold!
• Time to show my home, sometimes with only an hour notice!
• Time to learn to play the banjo!
• Time to make 3 quilts and kept my mind off my personal problems, at least temporarily!
• Time to see that "being busy" is not always the answer - sometimes we need quiet times!
• Time to nap when my body and mind were wiped out from worry!
• The option to roll my 401K - which let me take a temporary loan on my house downpayment (without a penalty) so that I could purchase our new home, BEFORE our old home had sold!
• Time to be a little choosy about the new job I took so I did not have to take the first one offered!

And ultimately, HE gave me a new, way better, over the top, job - that I love! With better pay, phenomemal health insurance and other benefits, the same amuont of vacation days, surrounded by great people and MUCH less stress, with a chance to make a difference in the lives of my co-workers, with the opportunity to feel needed and appreciated - AND WITH A WINDOW SEAT with light everyday!! What a difference "light" makes in our daily lives and in the world!!

On the way in to work today, as I turned the corner and saw "my tree"... I was listening to a remake of an old hymn that I loved as a child - there is a line that says, "His eye is on the sparrow and I know, he watches me." Need I say more?

P.S. I know that HE can't keep the leaves on my tree forever but for today... I am smiling because they are still there!!