Ready or. . .

Try to keep your soul always in peace and quiet, always ready for whatever our Lord may wish to work in you. It is certainly a higher virtue of the soul, and a greater grace, to be able to enjoy the Lord in different times and different places than in only one.
Saint Ignatius

(a premature fallen white oak acorn / Troup Co. Ga / Julie Cook / 2015)

Not quite yet. . . or so it seems. . .

A premature sign offers a tiny glimpse of what will soon be.
Some of us are ready–
Some of us are not.
A day will come, maybe sooner, maybe later. . .
there’s no way to tell exactly, when we’ll have to be ready.
You’re either ready or you’re not.
It’s really a matter of choice. . .or not.

For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
Matthew 24:44

Ready or not

“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”
-Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens

(a columbine ready to burst forth / Julie Cook / 2014)

Ready or not tiny new buds are preparing to burst forth—offering up delightful visions and scents.
No longer must we dream and hope for Spring, for Spring is happily here.

Quite slowly and being both a little hesitant and a tad weary of this most unpredictable weather. . . We tentatively ask “will it freeze again, do we dare get our hopes up, do we finally put away the heavy coats. . .?”

Our long wait appears to be over. . .because Hallelujah, it finally looks as if Spring might just be here to stay.
Today we want to celebrate because Spring is here with all of her glory!

The butterflies are happy.
The bees are happy.
The birds are happy.
And I, for one, am truly happy!

As Cardinal Suenens reminds us on this most happy of days, a perfect day for dreaming and for gathering high hopes. . . dreaming is most assuredly grand.
There is, however, a small caveat attached to such dreaming. . .
We must decide whether or not we want to make our dreams a reality.
Would we prefer to have the tangible or the dream.
And if we decide that yes, we want our dreams to be real, then there must, by George, be work and effort—for dreaming has its price.

Dreams are fun to entertain and in order to turn them from dreams to realities, we must be willing to take on the cost.
The cost may require anything from time and effort to expense and sacrifice. . .
But after it’s all been said and done, the sweetness of seeing and living the dream is truly priceless.

So today’s real question remains. . .Are you ready?
Are you ready to dream big and act on those big dreams?
Are you ready to take the next step?
If the answer is yes, which I hope it is. . .then you need to hold on. . . because ready or not, it’s time to roll up those sleeves and it’s time to get busy!

Here is to Dreaming big and working hard.
That’s what Spring is all about. . .dreaming big. . .