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Monday Surprises

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“Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity” (Henri Nouwen).

Even Mondays can hold a few good surprises if you know where (and how) to look.

Life is like that. Some of the most memorable blessings often come in disguise and the best joys can come in the guise of heartbreak. Even the most mundane moments can contain the best surprises.

Here are a few of the surprises I encountered on this Monday, October 10, 2016.

  1. If I had to pick and ideal weather climate, I think I’d pick a place where the temperature and  wind and everything else was just like today. It was picture perfect.
  2. A friend of mine forsook our normal Starbucks meeting place in favor of some fantastic Thai food at Siam Pad Thai in Cool Springs. I can’t recommend their pad thai highly enough.
  3. We went for a walk as the sun was setting. I don’t know what it is about twilight and dusk, but they are my favorite part of the day, especially on crisp autumn days,
  4. One of my favorite simple pleasures is sitting in my Jeep with the windows rolled down at any time of year other than the hottest part of summer and the coldest part of winter.
  5. Even as an adult, nothing beats good chocolate milk. Well, very few things, anyway.
  6. Even now, I’m counting down the days to the start of Advent and all things Christmas, not forgetting Halloween and Thanksgiving (which too often gets the retail shaft but is one of my personal favorites).

The old hymn gets it right when it tells us to count our many blessings and name them one by one. It’s the counting of blessings which makes gratitude possible and it’s the naming of them that releases the joy.

I almost forgot one. Soft beds with warm covers to huddle under with the ceiling fan on high even in the dead of winter. That’s also one of my favorites.

October 5, 2016

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“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower” (Albert Camus).

Is it really October? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that little tidbit, especially when it got up to 88 today. To me, that’s not October weather.

I have to remember this is Tennessee, where if you don’t like the weather, you can stick around for a week and see all the other seasons so you can pick the one you like.

Still, my ideal October weather is in the low to mid-60’s during the day and crisp nights with an autumnal breeze. That makes for good bonfires and for good pumpkin spice everything. It also makes comfortable flannel wearing possible (and I have missed all my flannel).

Most of all, I just want to enjoy my life and not miss any of it for worrying about what’s been and what’s yet to come. I can’t control either one of those, so why obsess over them?

So there you have it. My ideal fall day involves hot frothy beverages, flannel, bonfires, s’mores, and a chill in the air with just the tiniest hint of frost. Oh, and maybe some color in the leaves before they flutter to the ground.

You can keep your sweaty summers with all the mosquitos. I’ll take fall, thank you very much.

“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!” (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

 

October

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” (L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables).

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house [Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842]” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebook).

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. [Letter to Miss Lewis, Oct. 1, 1841]” (George Eliot, George Eliot’s Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals – Volume 1).

I love October. It means the real beginning of Autumn.

I know that fall started officially on September 21, but it still felt like heat stroke weather in Tennessee. Now, it feels like fall.

Fall to me means temps with a high in the mid-60’s and a slightly overcast sky. It means the faintest smell of bonfires and hayrides and decaying leaves. It means nights that err on the chilly side with a brisk breeze blowing.

Hopefully, it will stay fall for a while and not rush on to winter or revert back to summer for a bit. I get the most nostalgic for places and people long gone during this season, but it’s also when my soul feels most calm and at ease.

I still have yet to partake of that pumpkin spice, but that will very soon be remedied. Stay tuned for more details.

 

 

Autumn Has Arrived

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albertcamus107639

Autumn is here.

I realize that Fall officially started a week ago, but the last two days have really felt like true Autumn. The cooler temperatures with the crisp breezes and just the faintest hint of the coming winter.

I have yet to partake of the pumpkin spice, but that will soon be remedied. I look forward to flannel, bonfires, s’mores, and a riot of colors on all the trees. I most look forward to not sweating profusely when I go walking on my lunch break.

For me, Fall is the season where I get nostalgic the most, where memories of my childhood come rushing back. I don’t really know why that is, but I like it.

I hope it lasts. I hope I get multiple chances to drive home with the windows down and good music playing. I hope to have many frothy beverages.

Most of all, I hope that all of us can learn to savor and not simply survive the days we are given. Learn to enjoy the small pleasures and the simple gifts.

Happy Fall, everyone!

 

Another Post About Nothing

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Am I the only one who has no idea what day this is?

That’s what a holiday weekend will do to you. You have this nice extended weekend then reality comes in and sucker punches you in the face. Tuesday becomes Monday on steroids.

Still, it’s been a good week. As my boss from my old job said to me, “Any day without a toe tag is a good day.”

Last time I checked, no toe tag. Thus, it’s a good day.

I can tell that it’s slightly less hot and humid out there. Every now and then, I can feel a fall breeze blowing. I’ve even been able to drive home a few times at night with the windows rolled down (which I recommend you do whenever possible). It helps if you have good music playing loud during the drive.

Today, I choose joy. I choose to be happy. I choose to participate in my own life and not set the day on auto-pilot. There will never again be another day like today for as long as I live.

I choose to live it.

The end.

 

 

 

 

September Song

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Hello-September-Graphic

“By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather,
And autumn’s best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair.

‘T is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget”

(Helen Hunt Jackson).

September is here. That means that all my checks that I write this month– both of them– will have a 9 for the date instead of an 8.

September still means hot weather. We are talking about Tennessee weather where summer sticks around like the unwanted house guests from old movie Madhouse (starring John Larroquette and Kirstie Alley). Seriously, it won’t leave.

It also means that fall and everything pumpkin spice is just around the corner. Soon enough, the weather will turn crisp and the leaves will turn golden and autumn will make a quiet and solemn entrance.

September means a much-needed holiday weekend that 99% of the working world has been looking forward to since July. For real.

September means that we are closer to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas– the holy trinity of holidays for retailers.

It’s easy to get so caught up in wanting to jump forward to the next season that you forget to pay attention to the present. You can be so fixated on the future that you auto-pilot through the present.

I’m reading an excellent book called Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day. The goal is to live intentionally and mindfully through each day, so that you don’t miss what God is saying to you in the present moment.

To slow down and savor life is hard. It’s easy to want to rush through the day to get to the evening. It’s just as easy to blow through week to get to Friday. In that way, the days turn into weeks that turn into months that slip by unlived and unloved.

I’m looking forward to all the pumpkin spice, bonfires, s’mores, flannel, and crisp air that I can lay my hands on, but I’m also looking forward to tomorrow. I want it to become the best today possible.

 

 

Fall Preview? Almost

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As I sat on the patio at Athens Family Restaurant, eating my delightful lamb bacon burger, I noticed that for a few brief moments it almost felt like fall. Almost.

It was still too warm to really be fall-ish weather, but when the sun hid behind the clouds and a friendly breeze was blowing, I could almost imagine leaves changing colors and bonfires blazing somewhere in the distance.

As eager as I am to get to Autumn, I am not as eager to throw away the last days of summer. I know that there are no rewind or pause buttons on the remote control of life. Once a part of your life is over, you can never go back.

That’s why I am learning to cherish each and every day. Even the ones in August where the heat and humidity leave me feeling like I stepped into a sauna every time I step outside. I don’t do hot weather as well as I used to, or maybe the humidity is worse than I remember. Either way, I’m not a fan.

Still, I know that I can find the hidden joys even on the hottest days and that giving thanks still unlocks the miracles even in the midst of the humidity. After all, any day that you’re still breathing and full of purpose is a good day, regardless of circumstances or the weather.

So as I type this, I have a snoring geriatric cat on the pillow next to me. It’s just another reminder to take time to enjoy the simple pleasures of this life, the little God-winks of each day.

Thank You, God, for the day and all it holds. Thank You that no matter what comes my way, You are more than sufficient to handle it and no matter how much I hold in my hands at the end of the day, You will always be enough. Amen.

 

Return to Radnor

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I returned to Radnor Lake State Park. Sure, it was hot and sticky. Combine that with my propensity for sweating and the result is usually not pretty. But I didn’t care.

I was in my Walden Pond. I was in my safe haven.

I trekked down my favorite trail and then added about an hour’s worth of walking. I put in about 2 1/2 hours of walking, totaling just under 6 miles. I should sleep good tonight.

My favorite part is the silence. I don’t mean the total and complete absence of sound but the absence of the usual noise and clamor I hear for the greater part of my day. All I heard around me were the subtle sounds of nature.

The thought occurred to me as I was walking that the silence around me was sacred and to disturb it would be profane. So many people in this day and age are almost afraid of silence, filling their lives with nonstop noise and ceaseless clamor. I believe that silence can be the empty space where the words of God fill in, where my heart is finely tuned to hear what He’s been saying to me all along in all my busyness, hustle and bustle, ceaseless clanging noise.

I didn’t see as many critters this time. Perhaps they’re just as weary of the heat and humidity as I am. Maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right places. I’ve been known to not always be the most observant person.

I’m still game for living in Thoreau’s Walden Pond, even if that means taking a break from all things electronic. Some days, I could use that break to restore my calm.

PS I got my steps in (and then some). I ended up with 22,245 steps, or about 9.87 miles. No wonder my feet hurt.

 

A Good Sunday

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All in all, it was a good Sunday. The Church at Avenue South was packet to capacity again as Doug Jones, the campus pastor for The Church at Woodbine, stepped in and filled in for Aaron Bryant, who is currently on a short-term mission trip in Israel.

Based on what I heard today, I’m excited for The Church at Woodbine and the direction they are headed. After several years of declining membership, they are finally back on the upswing.

I think the temperature got up into the 70s. That’s about 20 degrees higher than normal for this time of year in Middle Tennessee. Do you hear me complaining? I don’t think so.

I was supposed to lead a small group tonight, back at Ave South. I was expecting maybe about two others to show up. I was wrong. It ended up being just me sitting in the dark at Ave South watching music videos on Facebook, thanks to the most bodacious wi-fi the church offers.

Was it a waste of my time? Probably. Another way to look at it is I got a chance to get in some quality alone time in a very peaceful and serene setting. Plus, I had good music to get me there and back home, so that’s a win.

As usual, perspective goes a long way. The glass is either half full or half empty. You can choose to focus on the bad or see the good. I choose to be a half full, see the good kind of guy. Life’s a lot more fun that way.

Better yet, the way to look at life is to see it as a glass always brimming over because that’s what the life of faith through grace looks like. God is always good and we are always blessed and there is more than enough for those who know how and where to look.

That’s what I choose.

 

Don’t Believe the Hype

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I was thinking about how the world was supposed to end in 2012 (according to the Mayan calendar– or someone’s interpretation of it). That didn’t happen. Obviously. The fact that you are reading this is fairly good evidence that the world did not in fact come to a screeching halt.

Today was supposed to be Snowpocalypse 2016. There was supposed to be all this ice and snow and sleet. The result? Not so much. Maybe a dusting of snow. There are a lot of people sitting at home feeling dumb with all their loaves of bread, gallons of milk, and heavy duty snow shovels sitting in their garages, going unused.

A lot of things get overhyped these days. I supposed when you have so many 24-hour news channels you have to fill them up with something.

One thing that can never be overhyped is the love of God in Jesus for you and me. That we can never make too much of.

The hard part comes in not in the reality of that love but in our acceptance of it. We’ve invested our trust into too many other people and things that have let us down and not delivered on their promises. Too many of us have broken hearts and broken lives as a result of misplaced trust.

The truth that I keep getting reminded of is that God’s love is genuine. It’s real. It’s unfailing, eternal, and unconditional. I can do nothing to make God love me less and nothing to make God love me more.

This may be Bible 101 to a lot of you. It may be kindergarten theology to some. I do think that at least one person needs the reminder and needs to see the words that God loves you just the way you are, before you’ve turned over a new leaf and before you’ve turned your life around. God loves you just as you are and He refuses to leave you where He found you. His goal and glory (which is your greatest good) is to see you become just like Jesus.

That’s the real deal.