and once again, this melancholy baby ruefully identifies with today's weather...the startling annoyance of the April snowstorm. driving in the treacherously transformed traffic flow, my life's tv screen has suddenly switched from technicolor to black, white, and murky grey. but even in this i find a fascination. the few colors surviving the burial pop out at me with increased impact, like the little girl's red coat in Schindler's List. and so it is with this season of my life. yuck, i'm annoyed that i used that melodramatic "life season" cliche, but alas, it stands as rock solid truth. anyway, i am gently lifted above the encouragement waterline when i remember that, yes, there are colors that have popped out in this "bliss disguised as blizzard" time. faith flashes, spirit slivers, and tiny bright blossoms of unflinching love perking up from the slushy ground below my trudging begrudging feet. but even amid this winter blunderland, i saw the forecast. it said 60 degrees by the weekend, which seems like an eternity from monday, but a hop, skip, and jump in the context of the whole space-time continuum. so it won't last, and it is melting even as we speak. simply put, i can handle it. this startling annoyance of trauma and tragedy. it's do-able, and i am doing it like a good old heartland tough broad, who is tempered year after blustery year with these events, yet instinctively reacts to them like it's impossible, uncope-able, shockwavy virgin territory. please may i just once get it through my head, "in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world," says Jesus, the One I've supposedly given my life to, and the Reliable One I supposedly trust wholeheartedly. yes, April snowstorms happen, and i am surprised by non-joy. but i can handle it, i MUST handle it. as my world turns, may the days of my life be ruled by The Guiding Light who reminds me of how bold and beautiful i am meant to be--in the midst of it all, rain, snow, sleet, or hail. spiritually speaking, how we deal with the WEATHER determines WHETHER or not we thrive. this strong-willed Iowa climate continually teaches us the lesson of the great jazz composer Fats Waller: "one never knows, do one." so it is best to keep our snow stamina and strategy as handy as the Burt's Bees Lip Balm under the dashboard. i leave you with musings from a new millenium would-be theologian from a certain paisley park: "sometimes it snows in April, sometimes i feel so bad, sometimes i wish life was never ending, but all good things, they say, will pass." sounds like the artist currently known as prince is a melancholy baby like me.