Getting there
It truly is all about getting there. The truth is in the little details. The small things too often taken for granted, overlooked. A gentle breeze, the allure of light and color.
What may seem like a mountain today appears a trivial speck tomorrow.
Yet we often allow little setbacks to keep us from progressing. How many times have you told yourself you cannot do something? How many excuses have you told yourself?
I recently found myself in a place I never thought possible. Can we get personal for a moment? Because I know I am not alone in this. I know right now someone else is going through turmoil. Finding themselves in a place so foreign, so unthinkable, it seems surreal.
Without sharing the ugly details, let us just say that I had to lose everything to gain myself. ‘Everything,’ might be an exaggeration, but it certainly felt that way.
Have you ever walked away from something you thought was going to fulfill you? Bring you joy and complete those empty spaces? But instead consumed your thoughts with anger and frustration. Spewed venem like an injection.
Let me offer some unsolicited advice.
Stop searching for another soul to satisfy your needs. There is only One who can do this. Point to Him, seek Him. Learn to hear His voice. The one who created all seeks to fullfil all.
Reach New Heights
Sometimes even the smallest step feels like a giant accomplishment.
Often, we will convince ourselves that in order to achieve a goal, we must win big. Yet it is important to remember that results are attained with a series of small steps.
I recently picked up running again. I say that because I never really stopped, I simply had to adjust my training. Going from fifty plus miles a week down to 7 or 8 feels more like a stop than a pause. Life dictated that my running take a back seat. While I could have viewed this as defeat, I chose to see it as a season. A delay.
At first, I felt discomfort, frustration, and some pain. At my age, if you pause your workout routine, when you start back up again, your body reminds you that you aren’t as young as you used to be.
But it didn’t take very long before I could start to push myself again and remind myself how to drive through the pain and discomfort.
The feeling of exhilaration and satisfaction after a physical push is something I will never tire of. It reminds us that our wonderfully created bodies were meant to take us places that comfort never will.
As much as I love a soft, warm, enveloping bedcover, I know that waking up before the sun, in the cold, damp, and dark recesses of the early morn, will result in a day filled with accomplishment.
I know that the brief discomforts and discipline will prepare me for the challenges of the day ahead. These small steps will lead to great achievement.
The Welcomed Addition
Australian Spotted Greenhead hen
Australian Spotted Hen, (greenhead)
When something enters your life and makes such an impression that you realize you simply cannot live without it….it must have been a duck. What else possesses stunning beauty, strength and spunk, in spades? What else can make one smile, laugh and delight in its antics? Nothing but a duck. Anas platyrhynchos domesticus.
On the Nature of God
This poem was published in Grand Canyon University’s Literary Review, Startle Bloom.
gifts from above aboundgently breezes turning
gusty
leaves traveling in search of
a new home
transforming their purpose
hues of yellow
hues of green
put forth notes
of fall
not spring