A Time for Rest and Simplicity
        by Gloria Gaither
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This is the season for rest and paring down.  Even nature is simplifying:  the sparse countryside with trees stripped to the bone, the fields dormant to allow the soil to absorb nutrients and rest from production, the lakes frozen and the streams reduced to trickles between the frozen banks.

                We, too, need a time of rest and simplicity, a time to get rid of the excess baggage of too much stuff and too many appointments.  Winter is God’s reminder that we need to absorb some nourishment into our inner being and rest in the music of peace in our spirits.