Ground wheat

Just when you think you're an adult, you realize that you still have to "grow up". This week we're dealing with my dad, who's body has suddenly decided to rapidly decline and begin the process of dying. Not sure what his mind and spirit feel about this. As my mother and I were headed to the care center to talk to the hospice nurse, I kept thinking "I don't wanna be here." But this is all part of being an "adult" (I use the term loosely because I still don't feel like one...even at half a century old!) An adult deals with stuff they don't particularly want to. And that process is what makes them "grow up". It's kind of like wheat. Wheat is a beautiful grass as it grows...it turns golden as it ripens and a field of it undulates like an ocean wave when the wind blows. Beautiful, but that's not why it's grown. It doesn't really "grow up" until it is harvested, winnowed and ground up to become flour to make our daily bread. Growing up as people is the same...we need to do the hard stuff...be "winnowed and ground"...so that we can be refined and strengthened and made into something that will benefit ourselves and others. Then when the tough stuff comes, we realize that, yes, we may not want to do it...but we know that we can.