Monday, July 25, 2016

Keeping a Record

Angeleelah
I'm keeping a journal in a leather bound book of lined pages. I have been doing this for several years and I enjoy it. It has our own unique collection of facts and "what I think" thoughts written out. Most of it is just the mundane stuff of the unimportant ordinary of us and our lives. You'd be bored. But I keep doing it anyway.
    I dug out the journal of two years ago. Now that one is not boring. I went looking for a happy time that I know that I had with a friend about two years ago. It's not there. I searched and searched. I finally found a few pictures taken that day, here on this blog instead.
   I have concluded that the happy stuff landed here. The boatload of problems and sorrows landed in the hand written journal. That's good. But both are part of our story. So I'll keep all of it. Someone suggested that someday a grandchild might read and learn from that poignant, rich, ugly, taut time in my life.
   So just for today, I'd like to make a list of a few happy things in our lives right now. Because life is full of a kind of pleasant, comfort one feels after a long hard day's work. Oh there's the work and the regular ebb and flow of real life. But at the end of the day it's just good to be able to lay down the load and wash off the sticky sweat and find the cool, smooth sheets of reading and pleasant memories. It's not quite so uphill right now. I think I have caught a glimpse of Rest at last.

~ It's summer. That brief time of green grass and flowers and leaves on the trees. Bugs and campfires and happy, dirty babies.
~ Smells of rain and leaf mold and mowed grass and drying laundry on the line. And fish cleanings. A Saturday cleaned house. The basswood tree full of possibly the sweetest fragrance ever. Sun-soaked, ripening, wild berries.
~ Sounds: Of loons flying overhead morning and evening. The first whoosh of wind and rain of our summer storms lately. The continuous rumble of the thunder. We've had a lot of that this summer.
~ New Vehicles: Brad bought a pickup. His very first vehicle is a pickup after all. After all he said, too. Amy bought a car. This time we saw it in daylight before purchasing. It's old, but nice. After all she said, as well. It's funny what life teaches us about how we don't really know how it's going to turn out. Only God knows. He planned it all along. Makes you wonder at any of our "plannings".
~ Good Jobs: All of our good jobs. Elv logging his logs for the last 35 years or so. It's been a way of life for him. Will he miss it later when he retires? How many million logs? How many machines? how many different land owners? And funny experiences? And those wintertime bogs that never freeze, even in forty below zero weather!
I love the privilege of working with people and for people all day. And the fun of creating vision for homemakers who shop where I work. Amy's job too, is mostly serving. I guess that's what we're made for and where we are the most fulfilled. Only God would know how to throw in life time friends for her, to boot, while serving. And Brad is working far from home, still among family. That's God's gracious kindness, too. Still, I miss him. I hope he comes home soon. (Anybody have a good job for Brad? He is looking for full time work in Hayward, Wisconsin. Preferably, something to do with logging.)
~ Fishing. I really need to go back and try for that lunker that took off with my hook and line and sinker the other evening.
~ Raising flowers.Reminding me of other summers of flower raising: my Mom's yearly sidewalk edgings of red petunia and white alyssum plantings. Eva's long wide rows of marigold and dahlia, Jenny's summer of cut flowers for her winter wedding, and Carolina's rose garden in Mexico.
    It's just been nice for a change to sense the quiet, pleasantness of a summer evening after a well-lived day.
    

1 comment:

  1. Your happy makes me happy. And my blog is my journal too. For my kids one day. I love your home. It feels like coming home to mom's house.

    ReplyDelete

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