Trolls

I took the kids on a short walk yesterday during a sunny patch after days of rain and freezing cold. Despite sun out our window, it didn't extend far past our house. The streets were icy, but once we were outside it was hard to rally the troops to go back inside. Lucy rode her bike a short trip, down a few houses to get on the trail. Well someone must have said hello to her because in her attempt to turn around screaming back to me, she slipped and fell off her bike into the mud. Oh dear. She definitely doesn't like to be dirty, or scared, so that was a double whammy. She didn't want to go home, she didn't want to keep going. She asked me if I brought a change of clothes, (all I had was Henry!) and that's all she could say. I finally convinced her to walk a little ways on the trail in the sun (away from the park), as I carried her bike. Through the tears, we looked at all the places the icy frost had lingered compared to the places the sun had reached to melt away the white to become green again. As we slowly absorbed the beauty around us, we came across a woodsy area. Heather (as we would learn her name to be) asked Lucy if she liked trolls. Lucy looked intrigued and followed her down the little wooded path where sure enough there was a tiny little troll. Heather continued to show us (Lucy) hidden elves, trolls, the man in the tree and other special subtle creatures. She lived in the house up the hill, but this "backyard" was city property, jutting up next to the burke-gilman trail. In 3 years, she had nearly single handedly turned a thorny patch of berry bushes and other non-trespassable foliage into a beautiful little sanctuary. Not only for herself to delight in, but passersby such as ourselves. She had built a little river, some trails, wooden "gates", not to mention all the hidden creatures. We can't wait to show Daddy, maybe this weekend. After we got home I realized an interesting connection. Our old place in Fremont had the allure of being 1/2 a block away from the Troll, a giant famous sculpture holding up the Aurora bridge. It's probably the 2nd most famous Seattle oddity, after the space needle. And it was in our backyard. Now, just a little further down our new backyard, we found a new set of trolls. I'm not saying that God organized Heather to make this troll forest just for us, but I do think that God is in the details of our lives, and how neat that we are able to have places like this to explore in our new wonderful neighborhood. With all our hesitancy and worry and complaints about the imperfections we thought there were in buying this house, we have been reassured and blessed many times over that this is the exact house for us. Hmm. This seems almost worthy enough to find a little troll to put in our memorial box. A reminder that when one door closes, and another one opens, we need only to explore our surroundings just a little to find the fullness that God has to show us. The treats that make this life not only bearable but joyfilled.