A beautiful day
Hey Lord. :) Thank you for a string of beautiful moments today. I am sitting at Starbucks feeling a miraculous breeze and watching a baby bird (maybe a nuthatch?) flutter impatiently while its momma desperately gathers tidbits of food from cracks in the sidewalk. I can relate -- my own baby bird shares the same persistent fluttering impatience.
She is a blessing to me, and it is a great joy to be her momma. Watching the birds makes me smile.
I am blessed this morning. A lovely, cool jog through the neighborhood, including an unprecedented deer sighting right on Neptune Drive. A gorgeous drive through unfamiliar countryside to do site exploration for my first paid photo shoot as Happy Finch Photography, with a soundtrack of NCC sermons about the Voyage of Life. A spicy chai latte and a notebook of photo schemes... Jeff is on Charlotte duty and has been very gracious to give me this break. When I am finished here, I'll head over to buy steaks and ice cream for Father's Day tomorrow.
I have missed this designated time for solitude and contemplation. I miss the perspective I gain from sharing these thoughts with you. It's nice to be back.
I still feel upside-down when it comes to religion and the accepted church answers to the Big Questions. I find the truest ring to the perspective of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes; which of us can know the mind and plans of God? Which of us can really control the number of our days? Our role as creatures is to live each present moment in gratitude and joy and to humbly submit to the wax and wane of our short existence on this earth. There is a bigger pattern, but I shouldn't be deceived of my own importance in it. Though...the shortness of a life has little to do with its value, I think. And even our small actions have ripples.
Sometimes, when the pace of things feels too fast, when the order spins into chaos, I feel grateful to know that I will not live forever. It lets me off the hook to manage (and fret) it all. I enjoy being creative, but it is also nice to surrender as a simple creature to a glorious Creator.
Big, open-ended thoughts. Sometimes they scare me and sometimes they bring me peace.
Anyway, I should go. I do not want to wear out Jeff's grace.
I love you. Thank you for my life and the innumerable mercies you have shown me.
Love,
Melinda
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.