Friday, with Cooper

What a great afternoon, spending some time with Cooper.  See new pictures here.

It's Been a Fast Summer

With Summer unofficially winding down, I thought I'd share a few photos from 

The Summer of 2013

The "Outdoors" Pictures were taken with my 
Panasonic Lumix TS4 Camera

We began our Summer deep in the swamps

The backyard of our campground

St. Francis, watching over our own backyard

The Biggest Event of Summer 2013!

Like riding a bike, you never forget

Running over the Wolf River at Shelby Farms

Temptation on a long summer run

Yeah, we're getting along pretty good. Hope to see many summers with this guy.

Stay tuned, More to Come!

Summer Sunflowers

Each summer for the past several years, there’s been an acre or two of brilliant sunflowers on the south side of busy Walnut Grove Road, at Shelby Farms Park. This thick patch of golden faces surrounded with dazzling bright yellow sunbeams, follow the warm sunlight as it passes overhead, from east to west.  The flowers seem to greet those commuters headed west in the morning on their way to work; and then they turn about and again face the traffic headed eastward towards home. For those who are paying attention, it’s a wonderful greeting to the new day, and a have a safe trip home nod from Mother Nature.   

Last summer I thought, I’ve got to get out there and take some pictures of those flowers.  But, by the time I got around to doing it, sometime in September they were done for the year. They were colorless, and drooping to the ground, engulfed by weeds, and ignoring the passersby and the sun altogether.  I made a mental note: get out there earlier next year. 

So, this is next year. However, each time I drove by the sunflowers, admiring their brilliance, I realized I had forgotten my camera, so I would think -be sure to bring your camera next time!  Well, last week, was next time. But, alas, it was again too late.  The flowers were mostly faded, wearily bent over and wilting; and the weeds were having the better of them, again.

So here it is: I’ll admit it, I’m a procrastinator.  And missing the sunflowers for two consecutive years only throws more light on my issue.  Now at my age, it seems to sting more than it used to: when one has fewer years ahead, than behind, procrastination takes on a whole new meaning. After all, at 55 I don’t think I’ll be around at 110…at least in any shape to hike around Shelby Farms taking pictures.

With that in mind, I’d like to be the voice to encourage younger people to get with it, to not waste time, to get it done.  But the truth is, getting things done, is wired within the nature of each individual person.  A procrastinator, like me, may speed things up based upon a lesson learned, or by the admonition or encouragement of someone else, but they’ll likely continue to plod along at a slower pace than the super motivated people.  And, I guess that’s okay.  I may speed up on some things I need to do, with the clock ticking as it is, but I’m just as likely to put some things on the back-burner that just don’t seem quite as important. 

At my age, I’m hoping that distinction in priorities is based on a gained wisdom. I mean, I hope I’m getting something out of living all these years, more than just thinning graying hair, wrinkles, and dark spots. I hope I’m learning what’s important, and what can wait a few days. Did I miss another chance to take pictures of the sunflowers? Yes. Will they, or I be there next year? I don’t know; but I do know, I got to hold my grandson Cooper yesterday, and we laughed and played together. I know I’m blessed with a wonderful family, from a loving wife who has been my biggest supporter and friend for over 30 years. I have amazing parents who have shown incredible faith, love, and charity to this day.  I have children, including an awesome daughter-in-law, who I couldn’t be more proud of.  And, have I mentioned Cooper…? And even on what would seem like a rather mundane level, I had a delicious breakfast this morning. On a sublime level first thing this morning, I engaged the Almighty in psalms, scripture and reflection.  My prayer time was just as fulfilling and nourishing to my spirit as the fruit, yogurt and cereal was to my stomach.  So, as far as missing those summer sunflowers, …well, beautiful autumn colors are just ahead; I’ll try to get to work, staying focused on my blessings, and I’ll also work on keeping my camera handy.

Giving from the Heart, Lessons from my Mother

My mother shared a nice story with me while we were having a visit this past week. Maybe you’ve experienced something like this: In a big-box store parking lot she was approached by a man with a hard luck story. He was asking for cash for gas, to take his wife to a doctor. The doctor’s office was 40 miles up the road, and their car was sitting on empty.   I’ve certainly had this experience myself, and at least for me, I think there’s a natural instinct is to be suspicious. I wonder why this is so.  Are we naturally wary of strangers?  Maybe it’s an ancient mechanism implanted in our DNA, from back when a stranger approaching from the horizon usually was an ominous thing.  Our instinct hears echoes of: He’s not with us. What tribe does he come from? Are there others with him? What does this mean?   But even in our contemporary times, once we’ve discounted any real bodily threat, my mind goes to: Am I being suckered here by some con artist? 

So then, it becomes a matter of judging this person by their outward appearance, and putting them in a group based on some assumptions and preconceived notions.  We can’t possibly know the story of how anyone gets put out on the streets, unless we get to know them.  If we do have a defense mechanism written in our DNA, we also have a brain to overcome the initial instinct, and stop to listen to that person’s story.  And hopefully, we have a heart also, to deal with this person with compassion.

This story brought to my mind the story of Abraham’s debate with God over the fate of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.  God shared with Abraham his intent on destroying the city because of its great sin.  But, Abraham sees a great unfairness in destroying an entire city, if there are innocent people there as well, so he begins to discuss this with God:

Then Abraham drew near and said: “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous people in the city: would you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of fifty righteous people within it?”

                                                                                       Genesis 18: 23-24

 And so begins Abraham’s debate with the angels of God.  It’s incredibly presumptuous of Abraham to barter with God in this exchange.  He speaks up for the innocent of Sodom and Gomorrah no less than six times, getting God to agree not to destroy the city if but 10 righteous people can be found.  Unfortunately for Sodom and Gomorrah, even this tiny fragment of their city could not be identified, and so the city and all her residents were destroyed.  But the point here is, God was willing to spare the city of thousands of people, if but 10 good folks could be found. 

What a generous and loving God we have. He was willing to overlook a massive group of the guilty, so as not to inflict death and destruction on the tiny fraction of innocent people.   Maybe that’s a mindset that can help us when we think of the poor and the homeless. 

I loved my mom’s response to the man who approached her for help in the parking lot.  She gave him some cash, with this thought: if you are truly needy, I do hope this helps. If you are just scamming me, well…that’s something you’ll have to live with –that’s on you.  In other words, either way, I’m not judging you, or your situation.  I offer my assistance with no strings attached, and I wish you well.  Her gift became a gift from her heart.  With her final words, she cut loose the strings, and left the matter between the man and God. There was no need to judge at that point; she placed the matter, the cash, and her good will, in God’s hands.  Thanks mom, for continuing to teach us lessons, as the loving mother you are.

Lessons from Cooper...Already

Lessons from Cooper...Already

Our first grandchild, Cooper was born 3 months ago, and I find it interesting the lessons I’m learning from him, already.  We kept him overnight for the first time this past weekend.  It was wonderful to watch his energy and to see him squirm and wiggle, his body constantly moving as if trying to break free and escape his current state of helplessness.  When he’s with us, his bright blue eyes constantly scan around the room, searching and exploring, it seems.  He appears to be in total wonderment.  Sometimes he settles his gaze into my face, or more likely my wife Bonnie who lovingly holds him for hours and hours on end.  As she rocks him in her arms, she constantly sings him silly songs, or gently calls his name, “Coooooper…I lovvvvvve you;” then he’ll focus on her for just a moment and then he smiles, nearly laughing, all the while continuing to flay his hands in the air, and kicking his feet out every which way. For that brief moment, he seems to acknowledge this love being offered to him.  He seems grateful, and maybe even a little amused, but then it’s off to other things like the ceiling fan, the television, or a spot in the corner…a friend of ours claims that corner is where his Guardian Angel is hovering about, keeping another pair of eyes on him.

This got me wondering: what is he thinking?  So, I did a Google search: “What do 3 month old babies think?”  And of course, no one knows for sure, but some of the sites that made the most sense to me indicated that the ever-developing babies’ brains are basically checking out this incredible new world, with limited capacity and experience, to process it all.  It’s obviously a dramatically different world from the one they came from in their mother’s womb, just a few short months back.

So, it seems to me, it would be kind of like taking a very young child, maybe 3 to 4 years old, from an ancient time, say thousands of years B.C. and plopping them into a modern suburban home.  What would such a child think of something so basic as 4 walls and a ceiling; bright lights from lamps; running water, electricity, TV’s, …this list is exhausting as you can imagine,  just as exhausted as would be the time traveling child’s mind trying to process all of these strange images and devices.  So, I think of Cooper’s journey, from the comfort of mom’s belly, into a strange new world in which we all find so familiar.

Jesus tells us that Heaven is beyond our imagination.  But, he also told folks, they were close to it as well.  One of my favorite images of Heaven is comparing it to a baby in the womb. Just like Cooper in his mother’s womb, there was a whole world outside of that place, with totally different sights, and sounds.  And yet, that world was close enough to almost touch it.  Sounds traveled from that outside world into the womb -Cooper heard sounds and voices of mom and dad, coming from somewhere.   

When Cooper was born, what a shock that must have been!  That warm, dark, intimate, quiet place was gone; out into a foreign world, with bright lights, cold hard surfaces, and strange-beings, poking and prodding! Put me back, he seemed to be screaming! But of course he couldn't be put back.  He had entered a whole new and wonderful world.  With loving parents, friends and family, he will come to know love and be loved. It’s a different world, unimaginable from inside the womb; unimaginable even as these three months have passed by.

I like to think of present-life like being in the womb of Heaven, or maybe even in God’s womb.  There are many things that my mind cannot completely comprehend. I hear whispers from God, and I see glimpses of God. I feel God’s presence in nature, in music, in love of family, friends, and even kind strangers.  This makes me feel Heaven is so close, I can almost touch it.  And if I consider the nearly infinite vastness of space surrounding our universe, the light years of distance between the known and the unknown, God must be in an adjacent world, right here in front of me, or Heaven must be really far away. But, it doesn't feel that distant.  God is too intimate for that.  

So, Cooper has reminded me, it’s up to me, to be as aware as I can, with my limited understanding of my place in God’s world, with my limited ability to understand God speaking to me, to trust, even though my mind wanders, my hands and feet are flaying, and I sometimes rebel with the feelings that I must know what's going on! I don't understand! I want more control! I need to remember much like my wife softly saying to Cooper, Cooooper....I lovvvvvve you... He's gently calling my name, and telling me how much he loves me. Cooper reminds me, I need to rest in the loving arms of God, who has been holding me all along.