The eclipse is today!  A total eclipse of the sun.  I am excited…..how could I not be?  There has been so much written about this lately.  I have read in newspapers about how it is like a spiritual experience!  Ha!  The heavens declare the glory of God.  Just because man has observed enough to be able to explain what and when will happen, he thinks he understands it.  How arrogant is man.  I like what a good friend of mine said yesterday.  She told me that she and her husband would “sit on the top of our Somerset (their boat) and watch the Lord do his thing.  How fun is that?”  I agree.  How fun is that?

I’ve always hated running.  I was always short of breath and ready to quit from the start.  A few months ago, however, I decided to try it again…..and I discovered that if I kept going when I felt like quitting, I ended up liking it!  Amazing.

Usually, I run on a golf course and it is beautiful.  So this morning I went for a run.  It may sound silly but, as I ran,  I pretended that I was on a slow (very slow) moving train.  I wanted to take in the scenery.

There was a lone rabbit in a large grassy area, barely visible and sitting very still except for its twitching nose.   A single bird sat all on alone on a wire.  Still lake water sparkled.  A few yellow leaves were falling from trees….fall is coming.   There were men at work, tending to the greens.  There were hills.  There were valleys.  Beauty everywhere but only really appreciated by someone going slow enough to notice.  The simple but gorgeous stuff of life on this planet.

As I ran, I thought about life and that it should be more like a slow moving train.  I am tired of rushing.  I am tired of missing the small enjoyments of life because my focus is on some more distant goal.  It is impossible to focus completely on something far off and something close at the same time.  I remember the old adage of “stop and smell the roses.”  There is nothing wrong with setting goals and focusing on them periodically to make sure you’re walking in the right direction.  But there is also nothing wrong with looking around you, as you travel through life, and noticing what is right before your eyes.   In fact, if you don’t do this, you may arrive at your goal empty handed only to find out that the original goal was not as great as you thought.

So I am trying to slow down.  Instead of waiting for adventure in the future, I am looking for it along the way.  I love a slow moving train.  And just so I don’t miss anything, I want a window seat!

My last blog was about my craving for adventure.  I do crave it!  I’ve actually been praying for awhile that God would give me new adventures!  I like structure and predictability to a point, but I hate ruts!

I was reading 1 Kings 17.  It is about Elijah during a drought and God told him to hide by a brook and ravens would feed him.  So here he is being fed miraculously by ravens and the brook dries up!  What is that?  God is sending food by bird express but lets a water source dry up?  What was He thinking?  It turns out it was God’s timing for Elijah to move on.  But I love the way God is unpredictable and yet always faithful.   No putting God in a box!

So back to my new adventure. I call it an answer to prayer, but my husband calls it “being a slum landlord.”  (It is true our small downtown is not beautiful…yet)  Anyway,  I don’t have a “for rent” sign up yet but people have been calling out of the blue to inquire about renting.   It’s exciting!  New and different!  Not necessarily miraculous…or is it?  I don’t know.  God works in the miraculous and in the ordinary.

Either way, it’s fun….I’m eagerly waiting for what is next!