MIssouri Autumn

Fall has been mild here in Missouri; today it was 72 degrees. Even so, the weatherman is threatening us with snow on Thanksgiving. It has been much more of a culture shock than I imagined staying long term on this side of the Rocky Mtns. Some days I think I've been dropped into a foreign country. I know the natives are speaking English, yet with the accent and softly slurred syllables I'm not sure I'm hearing what they are saying. I must have been a small child the last time I saw a rainbow of leaves skittering across the lawns and roads being swirled by the winds. The other day the new adventure was awakening to gunshots then later skinned carcasses hanging from front yard trees. Deer season had begun.

Miss T celebrated her second birthday. At two she is still a very enthusiastic bundle of energy. She loves hiking the trails, chasing tennis balls, and isn't sure what to think of flitting leaves or taunting squirrels. Even so, she has become more calmable and responds (most of the time) to commands. It is still difficult for her to maintain stillness unless sleeping or exhausted from running herself silly.

How did we get from New Mexico to Missouri so soon. First, I discovered that the work was much more physically daunting than I had imagined and had to admit and accept I had made a mistake. On the positive side, being there set me up to be able to respond quickly to a friend as well as carry me further on my original journey plans to be in the North Carolina/Virginia area by spring.

It is difficult to watch a friend struggle with something that seems to have a life of its own. It can be attacked, it can be treated, it can be hated, or embraced and life along with it. There are days we can laugh. There are days we work, learn, and do the next right thing however simple it is. There are days we cry. Here we live each day as it comes. It reinforces a lesson I began to learn last year in Washington and is well put by Ray Bradbury.

"Secret …. There is no secret. Anyone with eyes can see the way to live …. By watching life, observing nature, and cooperating with it. Making common cause with the process of existence …. By living life for itself, don't you see? Deriving pleasure from the gift of pure being .… Life is its own answer. ...Accept it and enjoy it day by day. Live as well as possible. Expect no more. Destroy nothing, humble nothing, look for fault in nothing. Leave unsullied and untouched all that is beautiful. Hold that which lives in all reverence. For life is given by the sovereign of our universe; given to be savored, to be luxuriated in, to be respected. But that's no secret. You're intelligent. You know as well as I what has to be done." ~The Martian Chronicles

Living life for itself, just being. Letterboxing, fellowshipping, singing, reading, praying, bazaar shopping, bread breaking... Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with all we are, the second, love our neighbor as ourself. Living life for itself, just being.

Some of my 'muggle' friends really don't understand letterboxing. If I were going to get philosophical, it is a way I can just be. It gets me out of the chair to enjoying the surprises of the day in places I might never have gone, seeing things I might never have seen. One day it might be bringing up bags from under dock, or climbing hills to castles, or spending time with the lions and tigers and bears (or peacocks). Finding the treasure is the extra HA in the AH HA moments of the day. Or getting a helpline call from someone who is just sure my box isn't where I said it was; but AH HA... there it is, not where expected yet where it was said.







Oh yeah... you need to watch out for the Goose Patrol.


Coming soon... Silver Dollar City boxing trip with a Dizzy friend, Singing in the Christmas Cantata, and hopefully not too much snow. I know I know... We aren't in the desert anymore Miss T.