Only 2 Posts...

*Sigh*

I wish I could say that I foresee more time for blogging in the future, but next month is going to be a whirlwind of chaos with seemingly everything happening all at once.  But I am sad that I have only gotten to this forum twice in the entire month.  So much has been happening within my life and my thoughts and heart and I wish I had some time to chronicle it, but oh well.  It is what it is.  Now is not the season for blogging.

But, just to run through a few of the things on my mind lately....

1 - THE YANKEES ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!  And all is right with the world.  I can hardly watch the games from fear that I will have a heart attack/jinx my team from winning.  Every single pitch is a tense moment - on both sides!  And this is probably the best baseball that I have watched in a long, long, long time.  Good pitching will always prevail over amazing hitting.  And blown umpire calls are a part of the game - always have been, always will be - as long as both sides get blown calls evenly!

2 - Afghanistan and Pakistan - Every single day this situation gets worse and worse.  My heart breaks for the people living there, caught in the middle of this conflict.  And there are no easy answers on how to deal with either nation.  Half of Pakistan and Afghanistan want to be ruled by the Taliban again.  But the fact that the State Department and the White House would consider this an acceptable resolution (letting the Taliban become the governing body) is sickening from a human rights standpoint.  Not that what is currently happening is not sickening as well though.  There are no easy answers here and historically speaking, there is no way to win a guerrilla war when the population in general wants you gone.

3 - I am so excited for this coming November!  I am going to get to experience so many amazing things from concerts with classical music masters, alternative rock concerts, the premiere b-boy hip-hop dance event of the year, and a few plays here and there.  The creative part of my brain doesn't even know how to process all of these coming awesome events!

4 - The leaves are gorgeous right now, though there are a lot of trees that are now bare!! It makes me sad that the dark winter months of bare trees and cold are ahead - though there can be beauty found within them as well - but you have to look really hard for it.  For now, I will revel in the ending of fall as these particular last days are a showcase of God's creation in all of its glory.  Hopefully, as I age and grow closer to death my life will be a reflection of the beauty of God's creation in all of its glory as well.

5 - A family reunited is a beautiful thing.  My sister is home from Australia for the next few months and I wish I could put into words the completeness there is in having her home.  There really aren't words.

There is more, much more that is also going on, including the restoration of my heart and soul after a particularly hard summer.  I hope that at some point I get to process and digest in further detail, but I can say that I know - truly, deeply know - that God loves me.  His love is more profound than I can even describe and I am so grateful that He has blessed the eyes of my heart to see that realization.

Again, there really aren't words.

On The Brink

I do a lot of thinking on my drives into and from work. More so than I realize, until I start talking and begin all of my sentences with, "As I was on my way into work..." or "As I was driving into the office...". I guess there is something about the drive that puts my mind into a state of reflection. Or else, my mind needs a constant state of reflection, but I distract it with so many things during the day and night, that my drive time is the only time in which I give it a chance to stretch and think about various things.

So, as I was driving into work this morning, taking Blantyre Road, which I haven't been able to take for a while due to construction that has been going on, I kept on noticing every little thing about my surroundings. From the daffodils that had pushed their way up through the hard soil to grace my sight with their yellow color, to the fields turning from their winter brown to spring's green, to the blooms starting to appear on the trees.

The trees. The trees were really capturing my soul this morning. There was something about driving past them, seeing all of their branches in their nakedness, starting to sprout growths here and there. And I was struck by a feeling of bittersweetness that the branches would soon be covered with leaves. That in losing all of their leaves to fall and winter, a beauty of the trees were revealed to me. The interlocking and intertwining of their branches, arcing here and there, showing strength in one branch, but extreme fragility in another. They are so beautiful and such high works of art, that it is almost a shame that they will soon be covered with green leaves! And yet, how glorious they are when they are crowned with the color of rebirth.

And the thought crossed my mind, that there is some great truth in all of this, but it is still eluding my thoughts. But in puzzling over it and trying to piece it together, I find that what God is telling me is that there is high beauty in stripping us down to our core. That going through a time of darkness, a time of winter, is needed in order to reveal who we truly are created to be. That the process of "losing our leaves", enables us to come to the core of the matter. And so when rebirth comes, we remember that the beauty really comes from the branches - that life is found there - and the leaves become the glory and joy given to us from the Life in the branches.

But, Allelulia and Glory to Him who brings Spring and reawakens the earth - my heart is literally singing with joy at the glory of spring!