My favorite parts of the summer...
I thought I'd take a moment and "count my blessings". Not all my blessings, but particularly the blessings of summer and some of the things that it affords me that I deeply enjoy. Not all these will be understandable to everyone, but God refreshes all of our hearts in different ways. These activities breathe life into my soul...
1. Mowing my lawn so that the pattern of the cut line up with the way my house is set sideways in the woods. The smell of fresh cut grass is among the top five things that takes me back to my childhood.
2. Cutting firewood. I love scouting the woods, finding the dead or dying trees that need to be harvested and hauled to my house to be split. Hooking up the old manure spreader to my 8N Ford tractor and filling it up with chunks of hardwood brings a distinct pleasure I can't quite explain.
3. Taking walks in the woods with the boys trying to find adventure. Climbing trees, picking flowers, finding critters like frogs, turtles, snakes, duck eggs, etc...these are a few of my favorite things. This week we climbed up into our neighbors tree stand and sat there watching squirrels, chipmunks, and woodpeckers hard at work.
4. Sitting in the living room at night with my wife and girls after the boys go to bed and talking about life. Sometimes it's serious, other times it's hilarious. Whatever emerges is soul-gold. The priceless treasure of sharing life as a family on lazy summer nights is rejuvenating.
5. Running on the old country dirt road at dusk is the only running I can stomach. I don't enjoy running, but if I can hit it at the golden hour where the sun is setting, the sky is full of color, the horses are out grazing on the corner of Conservation and Fero, the trees are hovering over the road providing a canopy of shade from the heat, and the traffic is almost non-existent...well, running becomes enjoyable if I can use that word loosely.
6. Taking pictures of beautiful things ranks up there pretty high...ask my kids. They make fun of me all the time for stopping in the middle of something as I'm trying to get just the right angle to capture a moment that catches my eye. I especially love using the 'portrait' setting if I can to make the picture look as if I have a high quality camera. I can look like a goober getting some of these shots, but I care very little. I enjoy good photos of beautiful things.
7. Shooting over to Murray Lake where good friends have let us have complete reign of their pontoon whenever we want to take it out for a spin around the lake. We usually bring a cooler of refreshments, Kami will set up her wireless speaker for quality music, the boys will be trying to "get tan" (they don't get what that means...they think it will make them lighter like us.) There's just something about taking it slow and then finding a cove to drop anchor and swim. We've got a spot we usually get to and then we stay there until we've had our fill. I have a feeling the water will be etched in our kids memories as part of their summer penchant.
8. Reading a good book without a great deal of pressure to create content. I love reading random stuff to learn more about life and how to live it more deliberately. It's hard to find a good book that really puts me in a trance, but when I find one, it's a beautiful escape for my mind that can often be cluttered with dead-lines and bottom-lines, starving for story-lines.
9. But even more than reading, I love writing. For the last year, I have recovered this lost desire, setting aside time semi-regularly to scrawl my paltry thoughts about this or that. I don't really have an agenda or a purpose beyond collecting my thoughts while I'm having them (as I'm doing even now) so that I'll be able to look back upon them as well as anyone else should they ever desire. I really write so that my kids and grandkids will have something left behind that speaks of my heart. One passage that haunts me in a good way is found in Hebrews 11 where is says of Abel, "though he is dead he still speaks." That's what this blog hopefully becomes after my passing. (a little morbid.)
10. I know I already said this, but I love walking in the woods--by myself. It's fun with my boys, but it's different when I'm alone. I can stop and appreciate something, my inquisitive heart can wander looking at the contours of land and the species of trees. I especially love the old, old trees wondering when they were around in American history and what they've witnessed come and go. I love stopping, sitting against an old oak, and just imagining what it would be like to live in the wild.
These are some of my favorite things about summer. Today it's a rainy Saturday, so it seems only right to reflect on the goodness of this season. Because believe it or not, a raining Saturday is yet another thing I love about summer. I love when the earth gets satiated and crops are fed...I care about the earth a whole lot and I suppose this is why summer is fun for me...things are alive and growing and producing. From flowers to gardens, life is doing what it does naturally. That's why they call it nature. And nature makes me think of it's Creator. And thinking of the Creator centers me.
Even taking time to jot down these thoughts aligns my spirit, syncing it up with it's Creator God.
1. Mowing my lawn so that the pattern of the cut line up with the way my house is set sideways in the woods. The smell of fresh cut grass is among the top five things that takes me back to my childhood.
2. Cutting firewood. I love scouting the woods, finding the dead or dying trees that need to be harvested and hauled to my house to be split. Hooking up the old manure spreader to my 8N Ford tractor and filling it up with chunks of hardwood brings a distinct pleasure I can't quite explain.
3. Taking walks in the woods with the boys trying to find adventure. Climbing trees, picking flowers, finding critters like frogs, turtles, snakes, duck eggs, etc...these are a few of my favorite things. This week we climbed up into our neighbors tree stand and sat there watching squirrels, chipmunks, and woodpeckers hard at work.
4. Sitting in the living room at night with my wife and girls after the boys go to bed and talking about life. Sometimes it's serious, other times it's hilarious. Whatever emerges is soul-gold. The priceless treasure of sharing life as a family on lazy summer nights is rejuvenating.
5. Running on the old country dirt road at dusk is the only running I can stomach. I don't enjoy running, but if I can hit it at the golden hour where the sun is setting, the sky is full of color, the horses are out grazing on the corner of Conservation and Fero, the trees are hovering over the road providing a canopy of shade from the heat, and the traffic is almost non-existent...well, running becomes enjoyable if I can use that word loosely.
6. Taking pictures of beautiful things ranks up there pretty high...ask my kids. They make fun of me all the time for stopping in the middle of something as I'm trying to get just the right angle to capture a moment that catches my eye. I especially love using the 'portrait' setting if I can to make the picture look as if I have a high quality camera. I can look like a goober getting some of these shots, but I care very little. I enjoy good photos of beautiful things.
7. Shooting over to Murray Lake where good friends have let us have complete reign of their pontoon whenever we want to take it out for a spin around the lake. We usually bring a cooler of refreshments, Kami will set up her wireless speaker for quality music, the boys will be trying to "get tan" (they don't get what that means...they think it will make them lighter like us.) There's just something about taking it slow and then finding a cove to drop anchor and swim. We've got a spot we usually get to and then we stay there until we've had our fill. I have a feeling the water will be etched in our kids memories as part of their summer penchant.
8. Reading a good book without a great deal of pressure to create content. I love reading random stuff to learn more about life and how to live it more deliberately. It's hard to find a good book that really puts me in a trance, but when I find one, it's a beautiful escape for my mind that can often be cluttered with dead-lines and bottom-lines, starving for story-lines.
9. But even more than reading, I love writing. For the last year, I have recovered this lost desire, setting aside time semi-regularly to scrawl my paltry thoughts about this or that. I don't really have an agenda or a purpose beyond collecting my thoughts while I'm having them (as I'm doing even now) so that I'll be able to look back upon them as well as anyone else should they ever desire. I really write so that my kids and grandkids will have something left behind that speaks of my heart. One passage that haunts me in a good way is found in Hebrews 11 where is says of Abel, "though he is dead he still speaks." That's what this blog hopefully becomes after my passing. (a little morbid.)
10. I know I already said this, but I love walking in the woods--by myself. It's fun with my boys, but it's different when I'm alone. I can stop and appreciate something, my inquisitive heart can wander looking at the contours of land and the species of trees. I especially love the old, old trees wondering when they were around in American history and what they've witnessed come and go. I love stopping, sitting against an old oak, and just imagining what it would be like to live in the wild.
These are some of my favorite things about summer. Today it's a rainy Saturday, so it seems only right to reflect on the goodness of this season. Because believe it or not, a raining Saturday is yet another thing I love about summer. I love when the earth gets satiated and crops are fed...I care about the earth a whole lot and I suppose this is why summer is fun for me...things are alive and growing and producing. From flowers to gardens, life is doing what it does naturally. That's why they call it nature. And nature makes me think of it's Creator. And thinking of the Creator centers me.
Even taking time to jot down these thoughts aligns my spirit, syncing it up with it's Creator God.
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