One of my favorite parts of Autumn is feeling the nighttime temperatures drop enough to spontaneously drive the blankets out of the closets, chests, and other nooks and crannies where they cleverly hide in the summertime. As the nights get longer and cooler, the central heating in the house needs help at night, and the blankets pile up on the bed, covering bodies that not so long ago, needed only a sheet to stay comfortable in the night. The layers grow deeper and more complex as the temperatures grow ever colder and Autumn threatens to turn into Winter. Sweet, warm comfort surrounds me when I crawl under the myriad of covers after the end of a wet, chilly day. There is no doubt -- the blankets of Autumn offer a cozy sense of security that the twisted sheets that go along with the hot nights of summer simply can't match.
But, after day after day of chill, month after month of rain, storm after storm, the blankets begin to grow heavier, and not always because there are more of them to keep away the chill in the night. While they continue to warm, they seem to grow heavier and heavier, until in the last days of the cold months, I feel that I am sleeping under a hundred pounds of blankets. Such is the weight of nasty weather gone on for too long. As spring finally pops up out of the ground, I am rarely distressed or delayed in returning the many blankets to their chests, closets, and cubbies until their comfort is needed once again at summer's end.
As I stuff and cram blankets in whatever haphazard storage I have available for them during the summer months, I often reflect on other things in life that can feel like hundred pound blankets --
Church events -- where conversation is a struggle because I seem to have so little in common with others in my congregation. But, comforting nevertheless -- to be around others who strive to serve in this world and honor God in their lives.
Exercise. Ugh. What a weight it is to get up and get moving, adding perspiration and moments out of breath to an already busy and hectic day. But, the endorphins and good health that follow make for wonderful blankets!
Friendships -- when they become strained by change or other circumstances of life. While it can become complicated to stay in touch, awkward to remain connected, challenging to keep ruffled feathers at bay, they are very much worth crossing rocky waters to reach the calmer ones on the other side of difficult transitions.
Even relationship with God. While I am comforted to feel His presence, blessed to feel His love, and desiring to honor His will, I am on occasion (OK... often) weighed down by His (apparent) silence along so many of the steps of life.
And let's not forget pets -- warm, fuzzy, loving, and always there. One hundred pounds (per pet, that is) of litter boxes, special foods, vet visits, petsitting dilemmas, bee stings, burrs in the fur, circuses that started out as baths, endless filling of water bowls, and on and on. But, living without them -- waking up to a house not graced by paws? I don't think so.
As I get up in the morning and feel the weight of my blankets, I am tempted to throw them off for a lighter day. But the chill that quickly takes its place reminds me to be grateful. Given the choice between no blankets and a hundred pound blankets in an often isolated, chaotic, and troubled world, I choose the blankets!
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