English Hibernation

It is 5 AM here in England and I have been trying to sleep for the last hour. I finally succumbed to the fact that that wasn't going to happen so I decided to wrap up in my coziest robe, make a cup of tea (decaf of course), and write to the blogosphere. Looking out my window at the bare trees tonight reminded me that we all go through seasons where we are mere shadows of our fuller selves. I wonder if I am in one of those seasons right now? The trees are not bursting with life like they do in the spring and summer, but they are hibernating. I feel like that is how my life is right now...I'm hibernating. That is not to say that I am not going out, meeting new friends, and throwing parties. No that would be inhuman in my family! I guess it is more of a lack of making the most of every day. Each day has been like the last 13 miles of a marathon, I'm just hoping to make it through one more. That itself is depressing, that I'm not celebrating each step and taking a look around on my run over here in the UK. There really is no place like home. Although, we did have an amazing philosophical conversation with new friends last night, that definitely would not have occurred at home! The conversation ended with a very open and somewhat emotional testimony of an unlikely friend who happens to be a Muslim born Pakistani. It surprised me what his family had been through in this "civilized" nation. He described for us several personal accounts of racism and hate crimes that the Caucasian English community that he lived in committed. I have to give his parents credit that even though their sons experienced great brutality at the hands of ignorant fools...they taught their children to handle each other and their society with "turn the other cheek" mentality. Just one example that his brother, who happens to be in a wheelchair, was getting money at a cash machine and a robber pushed him out of his chair, stole his cash, and then left him on the ground in the rain. The horrifying part was NOT that the crime was committed, criminals already have a clouded moral compass...it was that no one came to his rescue because he was Pakistani. People stood by and watched a man get robbed and then watched him drag himself through the rain soaked streets to his wheel chair and climb back in! I could not believe what I was hearing...I'm sure our friends had a great view of the back of my mouth as it sat gaping open for most of his accounts. I cannot say with certainty, that if my children were subject to similar attacks that I would have displayed such "Christian" values. The truth is that we are called to LOVE one another, God doesn't say love those who think like us, talk like us, or look like us. All in all were are on a journey, God is at the helm of mine, and although I don't feel like I am flourishing at the moment, maybe I am just hibernating for the winter. Come spring I'll break through the cold hard earth to reveal the first daffodil that relieves us all and gives hope that warm sunny days are ahead.