LAST ROSE OF SUMMER, FIRST RAIN OF FALL

Rain Rose, Jamestown, NC

Tomorrow marks the first day of the fall season with shortening days of sunshine and cooler nights.  Summer enjoyed one last surge of hot and humid days without much relief to ease the parched land.  This year’s arrival of another season has perfect timing as abundant rains have arrived ahead of a cold front that will transform the ambient air to cool and dry.  These are the kinder, gentler rains of fall that lull one to sleep at night with a smile on your face.  They serenade you during the day and provide just the right background music for reading a good book. 

A pair of Blue Jays out my window screech at one another as they move among the tree canopy announcing the imminent change.  Many of the birch tree leaves have already turned yellow and the wet rain has added just enough weight to dislodge them from their moorings high above.  They drift to the resurgent grasses below in silent waves on the northern breezes.  The familiar sound of the Jays in a gentle rain triggers the memory a more innocent time as a child in Kansas when I sat on the back porch and wondered at a similar scene, as I lamented the end of summer vacation. 

I wandered out onto the back deck during a lull in the rain and nature did not disappoint.  Rain droplets were randomly falling from the tree leaves and dripping off of nearby rooftops.  The skies were still ominously dark and the air was much cooler than yesterday when I was preparing the yard for the coming melancholy season of harvest and the winnowing down of fallow fields.  A departing airline’s jet engine in the storm clouds breaks the silence and its alien sound rises and then falls as it passes overhead, giving way to a distant drone and then silence once again.     

You can sense the seasons changing the guard as summer acquiesces to fall.  Then my eye caught the red glow of one of the last rose blooms of the summer season peering through the railing.  It was bejeweled in diamond rain drops that glistened in the faint light of day as if to celebrate the occasion.  

Dark shadows silently descend on the motionless land as gentle rain drops once again quench the thankful earth.  Another circle of life has marked the earth’s passage around the sun.  And in the midst of the peaceful calm, God whispers through the stillness, “Well done, rest and be at peace”.

FOUND MONEY

Lost Money

I ran across a Facebook post this week that had a photo of this wad of bills laying on the ground with a caption that asked “If you found this money in the lawn of a church, what would you do with it?”  Many people commented on the challenge and a few said they would take it inside, but most comments were like these below:

“I would pray, Lord I'm going to throw this money up in the air, you take what you want and then drop down anything you want me to have! Then do it.  Amen.”

“Pay tithing with 10% and donate the rest to the "Save Alby from Destitution Fund” . . . problem solved!”

 The challenge rang up a memory from many years ago after a professional baseball game in Kansas City at the old stadium.  I had been given five tickets to the Athletics game in a choice location. So, my wife Karen and I decided to ask her mother and two nuns she taught school with in the area. We were all big baseball fans, but chose to leave during the seventh inning stretch to beat the sellout crowd traffic leaving after the game was over. 

 As we walked out into the outer boundary of the dark gravel parking lot, I glanced down at the ground and noticed something that looked oddly out of place.  I bent over for a closer look and realized it was a wad of bills laying out in the middle of nowhere.  I picked it up and as I rose, I found myself looking directly into the smiling face of one of the nuns.  Without even giving it a second thought, I handed her the wad and told her to use it to do something for the school children.  She didn’t think twice as she retrieved the money from my grasp.

We called the stadium the next day and no lost bills had been reported, so it went to a good cause.  I’ve always wondered where the bills came from and just how much was there.  That old ballpark was located in a tough part of the city and I had lost a set of hubcaps there earlier.  The experience became even more weird for me after I watched the movie thriller, No Country for Old Men.  There may have been a hit man on my trail!

 

STARDUST BONDS

Falling Leaf, Jamestown, NC

 All matter in the universe is composed of the stardust from the Big Bang.  A tree leaf that is released from its bond in the Fall has lived a symbiotic relationship and is not limited by its form.  Its being was sustained by the tree and it in turn nourished the tree.  Once the leaf is torn loose by the winds and resides in the soil for a season, it’s stardust returns once again to bond and become one with the tree.  

Human beings are souls with stardust bodies.  And mortal death cannot break the bond between soulmates.  All it can do is pause it for a season.

RIGHT QUESTION, WRONG ANSWER--WRONG QUESTION, RIGHT ANSWER

Wrong Question, Right Answer

 Have you ever asked someone a question and not received the answer you were expecting?  Politicians are schooled in redirecting the question to something else if the correct answer is not in their best interest.  Many television personalities won’t push for the correct answer if they are convinced that the respondent probably wasn’t going to produce a straight answer anyway.  But of course, an informed audience can see that the person was evading a well-crafted question and that alone is answer enough, even though it was the right question but the wrong answer.

And sometimes the issue is not asking the right question.  I don’t interview people for a living so my experience is limited, but I still remember a great example a number of years ago in my front yard.  My neighbor had her young grandson outside and she introduced the boy to me.  I noticed that he was wearing a sweatshirt with the brand of OLD NAVY emblazoned on the chest.  So, in the interest of interacting with the child, I innocently asked him what that was on his sweatshirt, expecting him to proudly announce his allegiance to the brand all the kids were wearing at the time. 

The young boy looked down at his sweatshirt and pondered my question for a few seconds.  Then he looked up at me and proudly gave me his unfiltered reply; “LETTERS”!  Needless to say, I was completely caught off guard because that’s not the answer I had expected.  Then I laughed and said “That’s absolutely correct, even though I was expecting something else!”  Later I reflected on the moment and realized I should have asked what those letters on his sweatshirt spelled?  I had asked the wrong question and received the right answer!  We’ve got to think before we speak (and be specific).  That applies to BOTH the questions and the answers!