Life in the Fast Lane

Life here has become brighter, if not warmer. We've had temps in the high 30s, but the sun has shown spectacularly! Sun is something that we got little of this winter which is really hard for some people. I simply appreciate that golden orb in the spring because it means a new season.

So what is it about the seasons that I like? Everything! Each has a beauty all their own and like people, they have nuances within their personalities that aren't all beauty. In our world today there is no part for the things that:

1. slow us down and irritate our schedules.

The world isn't geared for interruptions like a little 'ole snow storm. Where in our drive to succeed and control our personal world did we loose the joy that comes from slowing down and marveling in the natural world? Yea, I know I'm ranting, but I wish I knew how to share the gift of seeing the natural around us instead of a seeing nothing but a huge and continuous hindrance to our way of life.

Our Neighbors Both Feathery and Furry

Friday evenings are great in the summer. I sit out on the patio, and watch the birds and listen to their songs until the swallows and bats make their entrance to the early evening sky. Tonight with little humidity was a great evening for sitting and simply being. The cardinals were, "Cheer, cheer, cheering," to the sky and the contrails that crisscrossed my view gave an image much like a game of tic tac toe.

It's funny to think that our modern age and the ever-present natural life around us actually coexisting, but they do...never quite in harmony, but always on an almost equal footing in our daily life. I found out how true that was one evening a few years ago when I was finding myself deep in inner city Grand Rapids on the 3rd deck of a parking garage. Walking to my car I crossed paths with a rather large raccoon. It ambled past and I stopped to watch thinking that in this urban setting there are still the soft features of nature brushing up against our lives.

I'm awfully glad I see the critters that surround us! I can be setting in the car at a stop light and enjoy the flight of a hawk, or see rabbits both big and small in the field behind our home and remember that this is really a shared space and not exclusively our own in this modern world.