Last week was an unusually cold week here in southeast Texas. Temperatures below freezing most days, snow, ice, sleet, freezing rain — a wintery mix they called it — and two days of temperatures never getting out of the twenties.

Only time will tell if the plants I covered survived the cold.

Now, I know many of you reading this are used to it being bitter cold in winter. That’s what winter is all about, right?

I lived in Maryland for twenty-two years. I know cold. I know blizzard white-out conditions. I know frozen car door locks, iced over windshields, unsafe road conditions. Black ice. Snow banked against the back door so high I couldn’t get out. I understand winter. I get it. I really do.

But most of us in my part of Texas are not used to it, and most are not equipped for it.

Before the freeze hit, I knew the huge philodendron that grew up the large tree in the back could not be saved. The ginger plants bounced back before, so I didn’t worry too much with them, but they’d never been in temperatures this cold for this long.

I did cover some of the ferns, snake plants, and Thai plants, hoping to save them.

Not sure the effort helped.

When the temperatures rose to the forties Friday, and the forecast said we’d have at least a week of above freezing temps, I removed the plant coverings.

There were clumps of ice clinging to the sheets. There was ice on some rooftops. Patches of ice even remained on the ground for goodness sake.

As I put away the plant coverings and wondered what, if anything, will survive, I thought about the hopes and dreams we have which sometimes get walloped by unaccustomed freezing cold they aren’t prepared for.

We might cover and protect those dreams the best we can, hoping they’ll survive, but the sustained bitter cold snatches the life right out of them. They are left frozen, with little option but to die.

Some of our dreams may survive the adverse conditions, but they are damaged. They may need extensive pruning to cut off the dead areas, in hopes the freeze didn’t reach all the way to the core. Only time will tell if anything survives or not.

So what do we do in the meantime?

Well. Just as I’m forced to do with my plants, I guess we wait. We watch. We look for signs of life. We continue to hope for the best, realizing that might be extremely optimistic.

And if our dreams don’t survive the freezing bitter cold?

Then I guess we mourn their loss and decide if it might be better to plant a different type of dream. One better suited for the current climate we find ourselves in.

Only time will tell.

Do you have to deal with frozen plants where you live? Or are you dealing with a frozen dream?

Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the subject. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18 (GNT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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