These are two true things.
The strength I have to live any given day has significantly decreased.
I am gifted with the ability and the quietness of slowness to be hyper-focused on small things, which bring much greater meaning, thoughtful consideration, and exquisite insights.
Solomon was mistaken. Life is very meaningful, especially when experienced at the flamboyant speed of the floating grace of the aged.
P.S. On reading Ecclesiastes.
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| Evening picnic on the river. |
Summer is hard on me; its heat and the extended daylight give me time to task meaningful work, but this in turn depletes me of energy that is no longer readily available or replenished as rapidly or fully as my body needs. Summer is a sprinting marathon of activity. The rewards are lots of blues and greens, colors, sunsets, and flowers, long hours freeing some up for resting, and a time for the balm of expectations of fall and the glorious warming fires of winter.
One great gift of my now knowing meaning of summer is a regular baptism in the waters of our mighty Tennessee. After a hard day of meaningful work, it is glorious to sink my body down in her cooling waters of gilead gently washing the pain and sweat away–a cleansing like no other, equal to the need of the hardness of summer on my poor, old soul.
My wife and I bike every day, and at the end of our route is a half-mile section of a wonderfully abundant blackberry patch. We stop every time, picking handfuls to replenish our depleted energy. For some unknown reason, I have begun to stare up into the heavens, into the blueness, into the clouds floating above, into the starry night sky, indigo and deep. It also replenishes me in the same way the blackberries do. I don’t know why, but both are deeply sacred experiences. And another. I have discovered the Fermi Paradox and have studied it in depth, and marvel at the simplicity of the answer to this “crisis of expectation over observation.” This too is a sacred study for me and replenishes my faith, love, and worship of the Holy Trinity. Oh, the joy of the nourishing of my soul.
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| The blackberry patch that started it all. |
