Do you hear what I hear?

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know I’ll be making a pallet garden soon! It was my birthday present! I also was blessed to receive something else I asked for – wind chimes! Fair trade windchimes, to be specific. If you’ve never checked out the handmade treasures — that support women, kids, and men in other countries, directly! — you should really hop on over to SERRV where you can find many, many beautiful things.

My boys gave me the catalog and asked me to circle things for my birthday. I circled several windchimes, but, truth be told, the ones I would have chosen for myself were not the ones I received. Yes, its true, I can be kind of petty, or picky, or worse! I wanted metal, booming, hollow, almost-creepy windchimes. (Okay, my hub’band calls them creepy, not me). But, that’s the kind I wanted. I got a set that was bamboo, in fact, here’s the one, right here.

I did hang them up right away, and tried to be satisfied. My heart was saying, “metal clank”, not tiny hollow tube clink.

But, you know what? And here’s the really cool part –

As I was cutting up some carrots for supper, I had the window slightly open. I heard something – it sounded like a gentle rain falling. I looked out the window: no rain. I turned back to the carrots. I heard it again, only this time it sounded like rain, followed by wind blowing through a heavy, grassy field. I looked out the window again. Oh yeah – the new bamboo wind chimes.

As I chopped, and listened, my heart was won over, and I realized the preciousness of the gift. It was what my boys (hub’band and sons) could afford, without going into debt over $50 dollar “creepy” chimes. It was a beautiful sound, and one that was unexpected. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did – and to really embrace it almost so instantaneously.

I was honored by being humbled that day. The things I pick out for myself are not always what I’m meant to have. I could spin a few more words about that particular proverbial quote, but I will let each and every reader figure out what it means for them, today.

Is there something you desire and yearn for, or have in the past, that has gone awry — only to be replaced by an bigger, unexpected blessing in your life?

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