In Which Mrs. Brown Drinks Joy - Week 1 Writing Class

In Which Mrs. Brown Drinks Joy

By Jo Sept 10/15

Mrs. Brown swings her arms, pulls her skirt up to her knees and faces the sun. It’s a magnificently gorgeous day on the vast plains of Saskatchewan, blue-blue harvest bowl sky, golden fields of stubble, crickets chirping and birds flying. The grass is lush and green from the fall rains and there’s a nip in the air that can only mean frost in the near future.

Mrs. Brown is alone on the country gravel road. Her closest neighbours are a mile and a half away and the birds and crickets are her company. Every breath she breaths is thanksgiving… today. Some days are not so. So many things fill Mrs. Brown’s mind; the lunch she had yesterday with Mrs. Hildebrand, the liver test a close family member is waiting for anxiously, her oldest child’s school needs…

But today. Today is joy, joy, joy. Every blade of grass is dancing with joy to be alive. Every leaf on the trees around her sings and twirls, so happy to do what God has bid them. The birds flit and fly, alive; so happy. Mrs. Brown wants to dance but she runs instead, every breath a prayer, a praise, a song.

If there were not so much pain and heartache in this world, the joy would not be so… there, so precious, so close to Him.

Mrs. Brown slows to a walk, savouring the warmth. Instinctively she looks up as a cloud crosses paths with the sun. How real to life. Each day must have its little troubles to make the sunshine special. Each life must have its trials to make the person whole, complete and capable of grasping joy.

Mrs. Brown heads inside. She opens more windows and gulps down a glass of water. Her work is waiting; dishes to do, toys to pick up, laundry to put away. Her heart is full, full of joy gulped in thankful breaths on a fall walk.