Caring

Quoting some lyrics:

Sometimes a dream gets wasted
Sometimes it all just falls and fades away
And you may feel you’ve made it
Then in a flash it all gets rearranged.

Don’t waste any dreams.

Mom, you’ve often said that autumn is your least-favorite (to put it mildly) season.  I’ve had a dream for some time, to help you enjoy the falling leaves just a little bit … after all, you live in Minnesota.  It’s not like we’re gonna suddenly wake up and have a 75-degree day on the beach in October.

It’s easy for me to say “Hey, just enjoy it a little bit”.  I know it’s more complicated than that;  it can be chinese water torture for the soul to spend your days dreading the unrelenting gray misery of winter.

Remember how you love trees?  Their structure, reaching for the sky as if being robbed in an alley?

The glory of autumn is that we’ll get to see that structure more clearly — the intricacies of each branch working its way to the sun, in order to provide more light to the leaves it had earlier, and to the leaves that are yet to come.  The delicate weave of the tree’s trunk as it endures hardships and periods of extended growth in its lifetime.

Plus, the colors.  Even for the mildly colorblind, like me, the vivid colors really accentuate the crisp, cooler air.  Even the rain seems different — putting a hush, a mild stillness, in the air.

We’ve just come out from under the clouds this past week.  Doesn’t the sunlight look fantastic after so much time in the darkness?  Go outside and just sniff the air.  Isn’t it wonderful?

Updated.

People often criticize me for having so many “dangerous” hobbies – like flying a single engine airplane, motorcycling, hockey and shooting sports.  I cannot argue that there are some “inherent” dangers involved in most of these activities.  So most people ask – why take the risk?  It’s because these are the things that make me feel alive.  No, I’m not alive because of them, but they feed my soul, teach me about life and what’s important, and give me peace and joy in my heart.  They are Gods gift to the adventurer in me.

In the movie “WALL-E”, the Captian of the Axiom coined a phrase (or most likely repeated a phrase) which is important to remember;  “I don’t want to survive, I want to live!”  He could have chosen to just sit by and let things be in order to survive, but instead he chose to fight for a life – not just survival.

I thought of the things my mom has done to “live” her life.  At first I was thinking she lived a somewhat protected life, just sitting by and surviving.  But then I remembered what she had done just a few years ago.  Can you picture her 100 feet in the air, hanging from a parachute, being towed behind a boat off the shore of Belize!  What about snorkling in the shallows of the clear blue Carabean?  Para-sailing and snorkling at 70 plus years of age – now that’s living!

Mom reminded me that these are the adventurous things she loves – she just hasn’t been able to do many of them over the years due to other committments – parenting and the like.  She lives each day in her gardens at home too.  I bet it’s adventure to live with my dad sometimes too ; )

I think I inherited her adventerous spirit, and for that I am thankful.  We could all sit around surviving or we could get on with what life we have.  Me – I don’t want to survive, I want to live!