All Hallows Eve

It has been an absolutely beautiful fall day. The temperature started about mid-40's and made it to mid-70's. The sky was blue with wisps of white clouds, the sun was bright but lower in the sky than summer and there are still leaves shining with their last glorious gasps of color.

In Sunday school this morning, I shared my memory of years ago when we first moved to Chattanooga - Nathan was in first grade, and we lived in some apartments over on Mountain Creek Road.  We were walking on the track at the old Red Bank Elementary school (it had a playground for Nathan to play on that we could see while we walked).  It was in the fall -- cool, brisk, but still sunny.  There were some older homes to the side of the school and track.  Being an established residential area, there were many full grown trees.  Many of the trees had lost all their leaves, but in particular one huge tree had lost its bright yellow leaves -- they completely covered the yard and the road in front of a home.  An older lady, completely white haired, was in the road, kicking and playing in the leaves. It is one of our most precious shared memories as a couple. It is also a "defining" moment in my life: I want to be that little old lady; not letting age or the coming winter keep her from finding joy in the simple things of this beautiful God given world.

So with that memory freshly renewed and the thoughts of how we are to continually praise God, I knew I needed to get outside and really savor this glorious day.

So I did.

a blink of an eye (again)

Almost a year after the original blog post of this title, the community of friends that composes my life has experienced such a blink -- we have lost a dear one to a terrible accident.  All of the family has not as yet been notified, so I will go into no details, but simply want to share the sorrow and bittersweetness that comes from recognizing the gift of each day -- we have no guarantees--only this moment.

Hug your loved ones.        Tell them.           Smile.

Make it count today.

ch-ch-ch-changes!

"People change when they encounter God in meaningful ways." *

I know what she means -- encountering God can wrought mighty, unbelievable, life-alteringforthebetter-change. 


But what about when you encounter notGod? That can bring about change as well. People change -- and not necessarily for-the-better -- when they encounter evil, don't they?  

Encountering the hard, cold, realities of this world changes a person as well. We are changed by it. Changed by meanness. And cruelty. By simple, unadulterated evil.


But, being changed by what we encounter in life -- isn't that what shapes our lives?  All of our lives? (both in time and aspect sorts of ways). If one were not capable of being changed by what one encounters -- now that would be a cold, hard, ungiving kind of person, I would think.  Not really someone I would enjoy spending tons of time with -- just saying.  


She is saying, I think, that the difference is that when one encounters God in a meaningful way, the change that can happen is always meaningful and good and positive. 


This is contrasted to the change that can happen when we are faced with notGod (evil)  -- that change may or may not be  meaningful, good and positive. It might -- or it might not. 


God -- it is.
notGod -- unknown.


But change -- it's the only constant.  


Hoo, ha, ha,  hoooooo!!!! Tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor!!!!!

*Diana Butler Bass, Spirituality for the Rest of Us.

Fall -- verb and season

I love the autumn of the year.  I have more sense of "new year" during this time than on January 1.  Which is odd; autumn is the time of the year that we see the coming end.  The harvests that have borne all summer are waning. The leaves that have given new growth are tired and on their last legs. The spring blossoms that gave forth fruit are now rotting or gone.

Someone once said that they hated fall -- it was the season of death.  I can see the truth of that -- and I wondered what it said about myself that I felt more alive during the autumn of the year than at any other time.

I have wondered about that many times.

Autumn is, for all intents and purposes, nature's last gasp. One last dance before giving up the ghost.

And I am, by my own declaration, "autumnal."

Hmm.

Make no mistake.

Autumn is full of beauty. And where I live this is (usually) especially true. The mountains can put on a show like nobody's business. The reds and purples and yellows and deep last gasp greens are beyond gorgeous.  The fiery, knock-your-eyes-out-glowing reds of the maples bring a sense of awe and wonder to my heart year after year -- I am thrilled beyond words -each-and-every-single- time I see them.

It doesn't matter that I may be more cynical this year than I was a year ago -- (and that I can be so saddens me more than you will ever know) - or I may have had a gut wrenching lifealteringIdon'tknowifIwillsurvive life event - or I may have even re-discovered love and joy and sense of purpose - no matter what my life has looked for the months preceding -

...........the red and yellow maples always bring me a deep sense of peace and happiness and joy.

I see them and I breathe.

Life is as it should be.

But autumn only means the end is near, right? There is only bleak and drear and no signs of life to come when autumn comes knocking.

Why then do I love autumn? How can a season that foretells such bleakness bring me such joy?

(to be continued)

There is but one life

So, it has been over a half a year since I last posted. Many things have occurred, many changes taken place, tears shed, laughter shared, happiness and sorrow...life has occurred.

My life is not the same as it was then. My life is still my life. The same life. Different, yet same. And in seven months that will still be true, whether I participate fully or simply "let time go by."

So, a new blog title, new blog picture, new focus.

There is but one life, and what we do with it is greatly up to us. I am fortunate in that I have freedom and choice -- I can in large part decide how that life passes. Not all of the human race can say the same.

So, at this time, and for this passage, this is a choice I have made.

Writing is a skill and art I believe I have a modicum of talent in.  It is something I enjoy doing and experiencing. I have no formal training (beyond regular college courses),  and just a smidgen of work experience with it. But I would  like to be much better.

One blog I read, Junebug on a String, the author who by the way inspires me like crazy, had this post, a life lived in hours,  about how if you want to be a master at something, it takes 10 thousand hours of doing it to get there. She talks about how 10 thousand hours will pass -- whether you spend them at what you love doing or not.  She has taken this idea and created a simply beautiful and terribly creative......program, lifestyle, method......I'm not sure exactly how to label what she has done, but regardless, her idea in a nutshell is this: find something you want to be a master at and deliberately and intentionally spend time each day on  it, record it -- on a blog, in a journal, wherever, and share it with others. (including her).

So, this was my inspiration for the change in the blog, for the idea that maybe I could be really good at writing. And that was the thought that was banging around in my head for a week or or more -- no action yet -- just brewing -- and then my spiritual 2 x 4 in flesh sends me a text that says she knows that I write, that I have something worth saying -- what is it that I am going to write?

Mind you, I haven't breathed a word of these thoughts of mine to anyone! Fine, fine, fine -- I hear you!!!!!

So, here is my plan: I will spend time writing each day -- not necessarily here, but much more often (I have seriously cut back on my computer time since Lent, and honestly, I think it has been one of the more healthy choices I've made over the last few months). What I will write about is not limited, but will probably fall into these broad categories: faith, my spiritual life, my family life, nature, silliness.

Today totally counts.