The Season of Green

It's the Season of Green in Coos Bay, plenty of rain to wash the air and liven up the grass. The grass gets green and the moods get blue. I happen to love this weather, the crisp cool air, the freshness in the rain and the green everywhere. But others are not so fortunate.

This is the season that little old ladies who no longer feel needed in their families begin to call my office just to talk about what a "terrible day" it is, weather and all, and to share their sadness and how alone they feel. This is the season I am drawn to hear their hearts and share their disappointment in so many things that have seemingly gone wrong, then to share a bit of this and a tad of that...the little joys found in every day, even the rainy ones. We laugh, we gain an understanding that there is not one of us that has any less need for encouragement and simple acceptance and companionship than any of the rest of us. We are the same, we need, we struggle against our need...but we need none-the-less.

It's when we deny our need and try to cover it up, that we communicate all the things we never wanted to communicate. We sound bitter, we sound wounded, we sound angry, when all we really meant to say was, "I don't feel special today, I'm lonely, I'm forgotten, I don't count". But fear stands in our way. Fear we will hear a bitter rebuke, "you think *you* have problems...." blah, blah, blah. Well, yes, that's because we have all heard it at one time or another, still we have to take the risk, we simply can't keep it bottled up any longer, so we make the call and we try to say it. We bail out and we complain about something stupid, not even the thing that was bothering us, why did we say that? What were we thinking?

I'm grateful that I love this weather and that I have an extra measure of patience for the little ladies during the season of green. I have my days, plenty of them, when I feel discouraged, bitter, and alone. On those days, someone else is having a good day and I'm so very very grateful they are.

Annie's Cottage was cozy on my break today.