From 23 C to 23 F and Back Again

I was recently in the states for a short time to tend to some legal matters. The coldest it ever gets here is about 23 degrees Celsius or 73 Fahrenheit – and the warmest it ever got one day while I was back in the states was about 23 degrees Fahrenheit! Was I cold? You bet! During the day I looked over dressed in winter clothes, long underwear and coats, gloves and scarf at 40 degrees. At night I slept in my flannel nightgown and bathrobe with 4 blankets, a bedspread and a quilt over me and still woke up cold at 4 am. We get chilly here and sleep with a blanket at 75 degrees. Today it is a balmy 93.

While there I made a list of some of the things that we don’t have in my area of Brazil enjoyed while in the states.

Paths to walk through the woods
Autumn leaves and skies without clouds
Snow, snowmen and winter coats (that is my snowman)
Sundogs and certain types of clouds
Gas less than $4.50 a gallon and roads without potholes
Lima beans, pumpkins, cranberries, grapefruit, V-8 Juice, chili powder
Strawberry-rhubarb pie …
Used bookstores and stores with lots of books (my downfall)
Goodwill, Wal-Mart and all the inexpensive manufactured goods
Ester Price Chocolates
Good rat traps (see entry entitled – The Humans are Winning to be posted Dec 3 for more.)
The scent of a pine wreath from Oregon (I used to live there beside a tree farm)
Central heating and air in homes
Jet trails across the sky (ever wonder where they are all going and why?)
Squirrels foxes and deer
Cardinals, juncos, blue jays, tufted titmice, gold finches…
Lack of security guards and openness of houses and stores.

Well you get the idea. What do they all have in common? They are all temporal. Although I enjoyed them when I was there and sometimes miss them here, they are just part of the things I have left behind to serve the Lord here in Brazil. There are other things I would miss from here if I left.