Epiphany

 - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

I keep coming back to this blog, wishing I had something cute or endearing or comical to share....and coming up with writer's block again and again.

I guess I had better just accept and admit that some posts need to be bittersweet.

This has been a tough winter.  Weather-wise, it has been mild.  I don't know if there's any cause&effect, or just a correlation (Sarah!), but health-wise, this winter has been wild!  We've been struck with everything from colds and coughs that linger, to stomach issues, to strep throat, to cavities (I think Olivia has had 6 worked on now!!!) and other dental issues (Emily's got some major oral surgery scheduled soon),....  The list goes on and gets much worse, believe it or not.  But there are good things happening, too.  Katelyn got her braces off, and Hannah finally let her top tooth fall out, and they both look awesome!  We are grateful to have generally healthy bodies and minds. 

Doug keeps working at a mad pace.  As he says, it's like "sipping from the fire hose."  Doing the taxes this year has been much more stressful than ever before.  And yet, we're so grateful for his employment and he and I are both glad that he enjoys what he does.

I've been looking back at what I posted two or three years ago, and feeling nostalgic for some of those times, when my girls were so much younger.  A couple of years makes such a huge difference in the life of a child!  I miss the way things once were, and yet I sit at the dinner table and soak in the people and conversation around my table, and I think I wouldn't change a thing.  It gives me such a feeling of joy sometimes!

Lately I have become more keenly aware of the opposites in my life, and how much richer my life is because of them. 

When Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, and were being cast out of the Garden of Eden, scriptures record that God told Eve, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children."  And to Adam, he said, "cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life."

I had always sensed shame for Adam and Eve (and for all man, including myself) in those verses, believing that God was angry at their disobedience, and doling out a wrathful punishment.  But recently I was struck with this realization: God was not expressing his displeasure at all.  He was teaching Adam and Eve in that moment, and I imagine he did so with tenderness and love.  Adam and Eve knew that as a result of eating the fruit, they would progress in mortality.  They would begin their own family.  I bet that, as hard as it was to leave the garden, it was very exciting to anticipate their new, more grown-up life.  Eve probably anticipated her role as a mother with incredible joy.  Adam probably looked forward to new challenges.

Yet God wanted to remind Adam and Eve that, because they had eaten the fruit, they would know all sorts of extremes: not just the joy, but also the sorrow.

This was both a blessing and a curse.  Only when we experience the difficult, trying times, can we really appreciate and feel the joy in the good times.  Sorrow, sweat, and trial are not punishments--certainly not punishments from God.  They are a necessary part of reality.  And the bitter helps us seek and savor the sweet.