Catch The Sunshine

It's evening. I have just come in the house from mowing the lawn. The fresh white clothes are swaying on the clothesline. The cooling breeze is so welcome after a hot August day. A peaceful feeling engulfs me and I am counting my many blessings. The Lord has been so good to me. The world looks beautiful. Wherever I look I see opportunities awaiting me -- the green waving garden, refreshened with damp brown rows. Sidewalks that need sweeping and spraying -- clean clothes that need folding, good books to read, letters to write, friends to call, music to play -- oh, the world is ladened with interest, things to do, pleasures and comfort.

As I ponder over all of this before me, I realize that peace in my soul is what opens my eyes to the goodness of it all. For my thoughts carry me back to times when I have felt the weight of a complete contrast -- when my little room was dismal, with dusty shelves, unwanted books, cobwebs draped over my heart and that drab, boring feeling that says there is nothing, simply nothing worthwhile. Now when was this time? The sky, the trees, the people were still there -- but I, through a sudden and sorrowful disappointment in my life, began to feel forgotten, unnoticed, and lonely. I crawled in my little shell and closed the curtain -- clinging and nesting in self-pity. My heart gave way to that moment of ungratefulness.

Most of us experience at some time in our lives some sudden disruption to our happiness. We fall into these dreary, "lump in the throat" days, so bluish that even a tear dare not break through. If we could just motivate ourselves to dust off the first shelf, brush the cobwebs that cloud our view -- throw open the window and take a good deep breath. Tast the freshness of the morning, toss the crumbs to the birds, and let the heart sing merrily with them. Catch the sunshine as it travels, show it to a child. Oh yes, life can be beautiful, but the vision of it all lies deeply in the soul. The eyes are merely the windows that let it take flight.

August 4, 1980
To add to my life's story.