difficult season.
All I know is, life feels extra-swoony right now. It feels like a gift. It puts me in the mood for celebrating.
I hear people say that life is made of different seasons, strung together by the sun and the moon. Everyone hits the rough patches, sooner or later.
When I first started blogging, it was difficult for me to really relate to bloggers going through a particularly difficult season. I felt for them. I had sympathy. I was also curious. Is it difficult to function in the everyday loop of living while you're in a "difficult season"?
I assumed things must be bleak if it was bad enough to blog about. In my mind, a difficult season probably meant not getting off the couch for an afternoon, serving Rice Krispies for dinner three days straight. I was relieved that I would never know for sure. No way would it ever happen to me, a self-taught optimist.
But then, of course, it did. Life just got a lot harder. It wasn't one great tragedy. It was the collision of many speed bumps that piled up into a concrete wall that I couldn't see past.
And life kept right on moving. My family was still well-fed and the puppies adequately belly rubbed. The hubs still got kisses. The whites were sorted.
As it turns out, a difficult season isn't the depression commercial come to life. It isn't even the hang-around blues.
It's a lesson. It 's an opportunity to take in the view of my life from a different corner of the room.
I look out from my red velvet chair - the one I never used to sit in - and the world still looks pretty grand. Yeah, I've had some things on my mind. The days have been harder. I've spent more nights wracking my brain for an answer - the answer. I've read books, talked to smart people, tried this, on a whim, and then that. I've listened to a whole riot of voices.
But only when the days got the grayest did I finally get it.
It was after midnight, but the sun had never looked so bright.
I have been lovingly placed in a world with so much love and joy.
Ways in Which I am Winning This Week
1. I cleaned off the chair in my bedroom yesterday and found 2 hairbrushes, Abbey's stuffed elephant, and $6.57 in cash.
2. I let a lady cut in front of me in line at CVS because she only had one item, and then when she proceeded to have a 15 minute/utterly fruitless argument with the clerk about said item’s sale price being twenty-two cents less, I did not grow fangs or a tail.
3. I snipped the last of my peonies from the garden, gently laid them in a basket specifically designed for such a purpose, then arranged them in a charmingly old vase (pronouced VAAAAS not VACE). They dropped half of their petals the moment I set that VAAAAS on the table?
4. I'm helping mama redo the guest wing to make it feel like hers now that we are permanent roomies.
translation...I'm enjoying the small things.
This is one lesson I may have never learned were it not for my own season of gray.
And it's amazing how, in a single moment of desperation, the atmosphere lifts and eight shades of pink can push through the once-frozen soil.
It's the summer season, baby.
just sayin'.
ramen noodle salad
6 cups shredded green cabbage
3 cups shredded purple cabbage
3 cups julienned carrots
3 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 red pepper thinly sliced
3 green onions, sliced
2 packages ramen noodles (seasonings reserved for dressing)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Dressing
½ cup vegetable oil¼ cup seasoned rice vinegar
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon sesame oil
seasoning from ramen packages
- In a large bowl, add green & purple cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, red pepper & green onions. Break up the ramen noodles and add to the cabbage mixture.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Pour over ramen mixture and toss to combine. Top with sesame seeds and refrigerate 90 minutes before serving.
Notes
I use chicken flavored ramen noodles, but you can use any flavor you like.
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