look up.

Towards the end of Fall last year, I found myself getting more and more frustrated with our hens. I had no background in raising chickens, and I couldn't figure out why they were tearing up our beautiful backyard. Large patches of grass were torn up and the chickens were far from giving up.

It all happened in an area under a tree in our backyard. I scoured the little amount of grass left behind, and came to several conclusions:

-there seemed to be a large number of pits on the ground. As in, cherry pits. I knew the homeowners before us were quite "granola" and I knew they often times threw leftover fruit and vegetables on the lawn to a.) feed the chickens and b.) fertilize the lawn (yes, he told me this himself...) so I thought that perhaps they really liked cherries, and gave a bunch to the chickens to eat.

OR
-the chickens were digging for worms. Or bugs. Or something delicious, and they were digging through the grass to get to it.

OR
-they had a bug (themselves) and were irritated and scratching the grass in frustration of the bug.

OR
-they were playing a really mean joke on me.

I never actually figured out what was wrong and why they tore up the grass like they did, but for whatever reason, the cherry pits left me stumped. Why were there so, so, soooo many of them? The tree didn't seem to be a fruit tree.

FAST FORWARD to today, and you can find me feeling slightly defeated. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by a lot of things happening in my personal and family life and knowing that I, in fact, have no control over the outcomes and what may come. I'm not use to this, and it has left me feeling weak and vulnerable. And although Isaac in particular believes I truly, truly have superpowers, there is nothing "super" that I can conjur up to make things happen the way I would like them to.

Also today, while working outside in the garden I came upon another cherry pit. I picked it up, and looked around.
And then I looked up.
Way up.

There, at the tippy tops of this old gnarled tree, were in fact, cherries. And for whatever reason, I felt really please with myself. A-ha! You ARE a cherry tree after all! :) But the one thought that came to mind in that fraction of a second that I had by myself without the kids around, was

Look up.

I may not be a super hero, and I may at times feel the weight of the world on my shoulders as we all often do. I often times forget that I have a loving Father in Heaven who is deeply aware of all of our needs who is waiting for us to "look up" and pray and I am grateful for the overgrown cherry tree in our backyard that reminded me of this power we all have.

And for those who actually made it to the end of this post, I hope you visit our blog in the next few days...I will be posting White Trash OBX 2011 pics. oh yeaaaaaah.