Winter love has such beauty in the human heart,
the beauty of slow, enduring, waiting growth.
It takes decades of slow inching to make a tree branch
And it takes a lifetime for a human heart to grow treewise.
The untrue branches, those that grew in ways
other than God’s design, those “no” inchings of growth–
passes so swiftly and will never come back as the same.
Why must our hearts ache so and be so torn, so alone?

Life is a pilgrimage.
We are on our way to a home prepared for us that will be forever.
It is crucial that we love the road we travel,
but remain free.
God always calls us onward;
always calls us beyond where we are.
There were hard times during years past
but now it all seems so precious.
Our whole life is like that.
The truth is that it is precious.
To focus on the hard while we are living through it
is natural but limiting.