Dirty medicine

I love the fresh, scented warm breeze softly fluttering the curtains as it swirls into the house on these glorious spring days. With joy, I opened the window, and reached my winter white cheeks to the sun. I took a long deep breath, and then my lungs were instantly coated in yellow pollen, and my eyes suddenly looked as though a massive and sudden onset of conjunctivitis had ensnared me. My nose became a leaky faucet, trying in vain to wash away the allergens that were marching like soldiers through my respiratory system. Remember that rose and thorn symbol of yesterday's post? Spring is a rose with thorns for me.

I love spring. I love the radiant flowers, the blooming dogwood and cherry, the sweeping golden forsythia, the flocks of happy birds, the call of geese returning, the naked trees spectacularly and in a moment clothed in lime green, the warm days when tshirts are all one needs to wear.  But in the south, and in most areas, the enemy of the lovers of spring is the pollen. Here in Charlotte, a thick mustard yellow pollen covers everything in the spring.

I only have allergies for about 2 or 3 weeks right at this time of the year. But they become debilitating if I don't take allergy medicine. The sad thing is right when the weather is briefly the most perfect weather for opening windows and airing out the house, I can only do so at risk of being swallowed whole in a sneeze.

Did you know that many allergists believe that if we are not exposed to dirt while we are young we develop allergies? I don't get why I have allergies then, because I was a very dirty little girl. And I worked on a farm ingesting all kinds of worms, and filth there. Maybe I would have allergies all year instead of just those 3 weeks if I hadn't eaten all that dirt as a kid. Maybe I should have eaten more!  All those clean freak moms with those pristine, sterile homes, remember this information. It may prevent a life time of suffering for your children. Stop vacuuming, stop removing shoes when you enter your home, stop that compulsive scrubbing. You are setting your kids up for bankruptcy in kleenex purchases. Dirt may not taste good, and it may look ugly, but who knew that the filthy little urchins were prepping their immune system for future onslaught?

It is of course illustrative of another of God's clear teachings. It is the struggles, the trials, the dirt along the path that molds and shapes our character.  A little struggle now reaps the ability to overcome greater struggles then. That is why James who coincidentally wrote the book of James tells us to count it ALL joy when we encounter many trials. It strengthens us for the really really big trials that might otherwise consume us. If we haven't learned to overcome the little things, it is not likely we will be prepared to overcome the big things. Remember that students when you ask ,"Why do I need to do this math? I will never use it!" You might not use that particular quadratic equation, but I assure you, the brain cells being exercised by it will undoubtedly come in handy some day. Practice lying, you become a liar. Practice complaining, you become a complainer. Practice overcoming, you learn to overcome. You become an overcomer, instead of being the overcomee. You swallow the dirt instead of it swallowing you. Get my drift?

It is clear that I must take a moratorium on cleaning. Off to the verdant hills sprinkled with blossoms I will go to ingest my medicine of dirt.

John 16:32-33

³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
   ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”