We're Having a Heat Wave!

Today is blazing hot...yesterday was blazing hot...tomorrow promises to be blazing hot! I am not into blazing hot!
For several weeks, we have been "making do" without our heating and air conditioning unit because the freon leaked out. After having several repairmen come out and provide installation quotes, we decided to wait and save up the money, instead of buying a new unit on credit. This decision was made in light of the fact that we are trying to make wiser decisions about our money, about how we spend it and who actually provides it in the first place. However, we have been tested to the limit this week with several days of 99+ temperatures.
After making this decision to postpone our purchase, we rearranged our home and moved two twin beds in the back office area where the window unit is located. The remainder of the house is left unattended much of the day, except for meals and for bathroom stops. So far, it has worked out and I've actually come to enjoy the quaintness of the smaller living area. The living room has become our hang out, and nighttime movies have become our time of relaxation (I am referring you to an earlier blog where we turned in our cable boxes; so we have no television other than DVDs) prior to going to bed and reading.
Last night we decided to work outside for just an hour, and when we stopped due to the last bit of light slipping below the trees, I thought how good that window unit would feel once inside. It was at that moment that I realized how our perception shifts to fit our surroundings. Where once I thought that cable, AC throughout the house, and other conveniences were an absolute necessity to life, I have now realized that I can actually make it on much less and be even more happy and contented.
Never mind about the blazing hot temperatures...

The Ticking of a Clock

Today, I heard of a website that can actually provide you with your death date by simply inserting four key pieces of information. Once you have given the calculator your birth date, your sex, your outlook on life, and your body mass index (calculated for you onsite), then you wait for a couple of seconds and bam!...your death date appears with a clock ticking down the seconds you have remaining. In the background, you see the death angel waiting patiently.

I sat there and stared momentarily at the seconds slipping from me, and the sudden realization that that was my life disappearing - not just a clock marking time for someone else. It was marking time for me!

It is a strange thing when the impenetrable realization that your life will end comes into stark focus. And yes, I know that no website can accurately predict the date and time of anything, including death; there is no human being that knows that kind of information. However, I do believe that we were all created with a definite starting and ending point - and it is left to us to figure out what to do with the dash on the grave stone, with the time that represents life - my life.

The point in today's sermon asked what we might do differently if we knew that our time clock would cease ticking in 30 days. The question penetrated my heart and soul, and made me realize that I must be about life in a different manner than assuming life on earth in this body is infinite.

Just since I began typing this blog, seconds have gone - seconds that will never be experienced again. So why am I writing and why am I still here in front of this computer? As I mentioned earlier, writing to me is something almost mystical. I am compelled to capture my thoughts and my impressions on paper as an artist is on canvas. Words will remain long after I am gone. May I make my words count for something...

Becoming a Published Author

In a few short months, a book will be published that will bear my name as editor/author. I have always wanted to create something in writing that would last beyond my lifetime, and hopefully carry with it words that would inspire others to live beyond the status quo. It seems that this specific dream will come true before the year ends.
But it is rather funny, because what I thought would be something transcendental has merely required small increments of fortitude. I don't necessarily feel any more or less of a person than I did before the work was completed. Yet, a dream has been accomplished.
What are dreams anyway? Are they something that starts as a tiny seed within our souls, and given enough sunlight and water, sprout into something tangible? Where do they come from? And how long will they remain left unattended?
I am working with a group of individuals who once had a dream to become a teacher, and now, after many years of meandering through life, have returned to that initial place. Their dream remained dormant; yet, it remained...and gnawed at their hearts until they had to give in and obey the calling.
Writing for me is like that. I have an idea and it remains for a period of time within me, until some point where it must come forth.
I am falling in love with blogs because there is no one to correct my formatting or my grammar or spelling...only my thoughts and my dreams, and that is enough.