What to do in a fog

I love everything about the movie (I confess: I've never read the book) Gone with the Wind. I love the outfits, the accents, the scenery. I love mammy and Scarlett as she says "Fiddle-dee-dee" or "I'll think about it tomorrow."  I love the character development of Scarlett, Rhett and Melanie. Melanie...who was so good and kind even as Scarlett tries to steal her husband, Ashley, through most of the movie. Sweet Melanie who was able to forgive Scarlett under the most impossible and hopeless circumstances.

Poor Scarlett. She never caught on about anything. Oh she was shrewd and smart and usually got what she wanted....she was beautiful and cunning...very Delilahesque, I imagine. But she never caught on about love and what it looks like when displayed to others or how it changes you when you accept it and give it.

Which is why in the end her husband, Rhett, leaves her and she ends up running blindly and crazily to him through a very thick patch of fog because she finally realizes that she loves him [or that if he leaves, she'll actually be alone for the first time in her life]. Either way, whatever her reasons, she runs through the fog to Rhett who then turns around and walks away through the world's thickest fog.

I think this movie began my love of fog. I think its beautiful, mysterious, hard to drive through if you're the driver, very calming if you're the passenger with a very capable driver, like my papa. Lovely to walk through and thrilling to watch it rise. Its weird stuff, this fog. But for all its intrigue, I love it whole heartedly.

I live on a very cute street. out my window are little tiny huts (for those of you who have gone on the Prague mission trip, remember the huts that the campers stay in? They are like that only much cuter). Most of these huts are accompanied by some very pretty gardens. The fall colors in them were beautiful. And beyond these huts and gardens is a kind of wooded area that as Jane Austen would say is "a prettyish kind of little wilderness"

Sometimes the nights here are very foggy. I love these nights. I love when I look out my window and I can only see a glow from the streetlight lamp. My favorite activities for this sort of night include tea drinking, movie watching, book reading and sleeping. I love that its cozy inside and that I don't have to go out into the friendly, creeping fog. Its so thick that I'd probably run into a person or tree if I went out in it anyway.

But now I find myself being called to walk through my own personal fog. The 'why' of this story is very long, but it turns out that I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to walking through my own, personally made for me, patch of fog. This is sort of a surprising discovery since I love fog. But there it is. The path in front of me is very foggy and its definitely more like a Beauty and the Beast, ominous, can't-see-where-you're-going-or-whats-in-front-of-you fog, (when Belle has to choose which path to take to find her father) then a friendly, creeping fog.

And now I have a choice. I can run blindly and crazily through it, the way Scarlett did, until I come to the end of either the fog or myself.

Or I can stand really still, close my eyes and hope that it passes.

or

I can believe, like the Psalmist Asaph, that even through {fog} "I am continually with You, and You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my life and my portion forever" Psalm 73:23-26

And like Job, who through all he went through the author says that "In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong"

I have a choice to believe that God is a good Papa (much like my earthly papa, but better!) and that as I take my first steps into the fog that He is holding my hand and will be holding my hand at the end of this particularly foggy portion of my path. And thank goodness that I don't have to run blindly or crazily through it...because that would result into running into things and tripping and things. And thankfully I don't have to stand still and hope it passes...because when you're standing still you hear every.single.scary.noise.

I'm so thankful that I have someone to walk me through this patch of fog and that I can just hold His hand and enjoy the intrigue of a foggy walk.