This blog is such a fulfilling way for me to get my thoughts out....I haven't felt like writing in earnest in such a long time. I am beginning to feel again the little nudges inside that words make when they want to be expressed. But most of all, I am feeling the need to put into words the ideas and convictions that are swirling around and filling increasing amounts of time in my head.

The long and short of it is this. I am not getting any younger. I know now what I did not know when I was much younger--mainly that I will not live forever and want to make choices with my time and my life that mean something for eternity, for others, for things that really matter.
I truly want to go out strong in making a difference somehow. Today I heard a friend say, "We are all going to get tired, I want to get tired over something worthy of getting tired over." That is wonderfully put.
I am coming to realize that the enemy of our soul has one amazingly effective strategy that is keeping countless people from doing what they were called to do. That strategy is nothing more than the 'good' task of keeping us constantly striving "to be better." It is an exhausting and impossible job that seems so worthwhile that we are blinded to the heart of God's will for us-namely, forgetting ourselves and getting on with bettering the lives of every one else.
I feel new "marching orders" are coming for a new season and hopefully I will recognize them for I am pretty sure they won't look familiar or feel comfortable. Stretching one's horizons is a specialty of God's.
More than anything, I want to be about what He is about, no matter how insignificant it may look to me. His economy is vastly different than ours. I think I would see and hear more clearly if I walked around on my hands, seeing everything upside down, right side up.
A precious friend reminded me this morning of the prayer of all prayers, "the prayer that never fails, Thy will be done."
ever grateful for that

Season's end

Well, summer is almost over--actually, it is over when you see big yellow school buses picking up children at the street corner and begin to see the piles of tomatoes dwindling at the farm stands. Oh, the HORROR of dwindling tomatoes.! To me, tomatoes are the only redeeming thing about summer--no, that is not true. It's humid steamy days and constant mosquito bites are redeemed by fresh corn, green beans, bright peppers, and fresh produce of every kind. Of course, I left out hummingbirds, sweet iced tea, never ending jumps off the dock into the lake, crickets at night, giant blossoms on my moon vine opening at dusk, cold suppers, watching the last of daylight every evening from my bed, and many other lovely aspects of the season.
I guess my love affair with fall is making me wish the last vestiges of summer to be on their way. I have been admiring my perfectly seasoned wood pile since April, anticipating that first day that will be cold enough for a fire.
I know I shouldn't wish away a single day. I just don't "do hot" very well, never have, and never will. I look each day much like my end of the season plants--a little droopy and sick of the heat.
I am in Mass. with our daughter Clare for a couple of weeks, and I am certainly seeing those hints of Fall that make me want to shout. We drove through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the rolling hills of the Amish countryside in Pennsylvania thrilling at the beauty and timeless hope seen in the harvested fields. So many deep truths are tied into harvest, such a poignant time for so many people who have labored so long for this season.

Robert Lewis Stevenson said, "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant." Whether summer, fall, winter or spring, that is a wonderful way to live.
ever grateful for that