Tag: perspective

Faith, Gratefulness, gratitude, Health, Life

Good Things

Sondra

My last slow morning of the summer. Today is Labor Day and I’ve enjoyed my morning immensely. I haven’t done anything spectacular. I’ve had my coffee and Jesus time. I’ve started washing bedding. I’ve washed dishes. I’ve put the meatloaf in the crockpot for dinner. Just little things that I was able to accomplish without rushing around to try and get to work on time.

Mike woke up and did the morning chores before he went into town to get a part he needed to fix the brush hog. He brought home breakfast burritos and Keith as well. After fixing the brush hog, he took Keith home and then came back to start brush hogging. He has a lot to get done before colder weather hits. There’s always something to do around here. Our to-d0 lists never end. I’m thankful for the day off to gain a little ground on the list. It’s good for the soul.

I looked up and out the window a few minutes ago and saw leaves falling from the tree and blowing in the wind. I love this time of year when the mornings are cooler, and sometimes the days stay cooler as well. I could live with this climate all year round. I don’t need the spring rain, the summer sun, or the winter snow. I just want this. 

I want a lot of things that I cannot have. It’s not that they are bad things. I don’t want bad things. I want only what I consider to be good things. But are they only good? What would happen to the ecosystem if all we had was 60 degree lows and 80 degree highs? What would happen to the earth if we didn’t have the spring rain, the summer sun, or the winter snow? Things to think about and remember that, even though I might not like something, it is necessary for the way God created the world to work. He knew what He was doing. He designed everything to work together (Romans 8:38).

~Sondra~

Life, motivation

Front Porch Sittin’

Sondra

We got a little rain today. The first little bit in a couple weeks. It was a welcome sight as it cooled the temps off some and rinsed all the dust off my car. Bear and I sat outside on the porch watching the rain fall. He would dart out into it and run just as fast back under the cover of the porch. Me? I stayed under the cover, not willing to get wet.

And that’s basically how I’ve been living life for the past 40-something years. Safe on the porch. Dry. Boring. I like the sound of adventure, but I never get off the porch. I like watching the rain fall, but I don’t want to get wet. Why leave the comfort of my lawn chair?

Because life starts at the end of your comfort zone. -Neale Donald Walsch

Recently, I was talking to a couple friends about life. One is my age and the other is 17. Our perspectives are very different. We adults look back at life and wish we had done some stuff differently. The 17 year-old looks forward, with plans and goals and dreams of what she wants out of life. Are we wrong? Is she naive? No. Neither of those is true. 

My old friend mentioned something about picking your adventure and I immediately thought about those “choose your adventure” books we used to check out at the library when we were kids. You read a bit and then came to a choice. “If you choose to go out in the rain, go to page 21.” “If you choose to turn around and go back in the house, turn to page 35.” “If you choose to sit on the porch and watch it rain, the end. You’re done. Life has passed you by.”

I loved those books. If you made the wrong choice and your character ended up dead, you just went back to the page with the choices and chose another page. No harm, no foul. You made a mistake the first time, but it’s erased and you can make another choice and pretend that the other one never happened. That’s cheating, right? But wouldn’t life be so much better if it happened that way?

Maybe. But maybe not. If you could go back and erase all the mistakes you ever made, would you? I doubt it. Did they cause hurt and suffering? Undoubtedly so. Did you learn from them? Most of us did. The only things I would go back and change were the things I didn’t do. The places I didn’t go. The chances I didn’t take. Except for skydiving…I still probably wouldn’t go skydiving.