Spring brings unexpected change
Spring is the season of change. Trees flaunt their fragrant blooms. Red robins return to hatch their young. The exploding color of dormant daffodil bulbs announces the season’s arrival.
Recently I was looking through old articles and ran across the story I wrote a year ago about Father Ambrose’s arrival to serve as pastor of Saint Dominic’s Catholic Church.
When asked about his 30 years in the ministry, the Nigerian-born priest replied, “One of the things I have come to know is that the only thing we can count on in life is change.”
That nugget of truth hit home a week ago when I got a phone call from my mom.
“The neighbor’s ewe had a lamb that she won’t take care of,” she said, adding, “Do you want it?”
Of course we “adopted” this “bummer lamb.” I am not sure if that means it is a bummer because the mother rejected it or that each time it drops organic waste on my kitchen floor is a bummer –– a big bummer.
Our almost 12-year-old daughter, Amy, has fallen in love with the little ewe that she lovingly named Baa-bie (pronounced Bobbie).
She has become its surrogate mother, making sure its milk replacement is mixed and heated just right and letting it sleep in a dog kennel in her room.
Overnight our family went from a normal routine to one consumed with a little gangly-legged creature that follows us around.
Our lives now revolve around bottle feedings, cleaning its straw bed, and making sure it has plenty of exercise. It’s a lot like having a new baby in the house — without the pregnancy.
Many times I catch myself spending a lot of energy trying to regain control and balance in the household. I now realize the notion of what is normal has been replaced by what is predictable.
It would have been so much easier if I had told my mom that we were way too busy and had too much going on to take in an orphaned lamb.
But just as Father Ambrose said, change is a part of life.
Change isn’t always easy, but it is there all the same.
Many of life’s changes are out of our control, yet how we respond to them is up to us.
Every time I watch Amy taking care of Baa-bie, I realize the importance of being willing to accept the unexpected changes that come into our lives.
I also realize that to have missed the opportunity to love a little lamb named Baa-bie would have been the biggest bummer of them all.
Tomorrow is the official start of spring.
Take time to smell the daffodils and make room in your heart for whatever unexpected change may come into your life this season.
3/19/09 – by Marci Seither, Colfax Record correspondent
