Reflections on a cool night

There is a soft rain outside right now. I love the sound of rain. I love the smell of it too. My window is open just slightly and it's making it a beautiful soft evening. It's making me a bit reflective.

Early March is an interesting time of year. It's not quite winter any more. It's not quite spring yet. You can't be sure what it is you should be wearing from one day to the next. I leave my jacket home one day and a cold wind blows all afternoon. I take my jacket the next and the sun beats down and I drain my water bottle. It's a time of transition.

It's been a year now that the boyfriend and I have gotten together every Sunday evening to study the scriptures together. He has a way of seeing them that fascinates me and I always learn something from our discussions. Part of me just likes watching his excitement too. Last year we read the New Testament together. Our ten pages a night some times took three or four hours. This year we are reading the Doctrine & Covenants. It's a shorter book so we only have to read 5.5 pages a night to read it all this year. Still, it took us more than twenty minutes to read the first verse tonight.

It has been a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about topics that might not have come up any other way, and to simply build communication skills. We don't always see things the same, or even necessarily agree on how the other sees them. Tonight we had to agree that we aren't seeing the importance of the directions associated with the Fall and the Garden of Eden the same (that was quite the tangent, considering none of the sections we read tonight talked about it). But the time sitting together talking has definitely been a blessing.

I'm also reflecting a bit on patience. A few days ago I wrote about how different things can play in to patience. A day or so later someone said they think I am a very patient person. And tonight as I reflect a bit on this particular date, March 8th, it's been 3 years since I first received the impression that things could very well work out with the boyfriend and I, eternally. There are of course a lot of variables that have to work out for that to work, and I don't believe in a "one and only," but I knew it was a possibility back then. Talk about patience. The Lord has his timing though. And I think one of the tests in life is learning to trust in and have faith in that timing. Because His timing will be the best in the end.

In elementary school we would make kites in March and do things with lions and lambs. If March came in like a lion it was supposed to go out like a lamb. If it came in like a lamb it was supposed to go out like a lion. There are aspects of this March that have started like a lamb and others that have started like a lion. There are other things about this March that have been on my mind as it approached. I wonder how this March will go out.