April 15

There are a wide variety of trees, bushes, and flowers in our yard, but I'm enthralled by the pair of rose bushes that frame the garage. I stopped to take a closer look at one of them after my afternoon stroll to the mailbox down the street.

It's just a rose bush, but it's filled with tiny buds that will, at some point, become fragrant blooms. And (and this is what makes them so interesting) I have no idea what color they'll be! Red? White? Pink? Orange? I can't tell. And I'm really excited to see what they wind up looking like.

That thought reminded me of an important truth. When times are hard or weird or confusing or just plain not what we wanted or hoped for, it can be easy to just give up. But it's important that we continue to view life with anticipation; with excitement over what's just over the next hill... or what's inside those tightly closed flowers-to-be.