Hope For Today

Let's say you are the president-elect trying to prepare yourself to lead the world's nations into a new era of responsible, thrifty, caring, sustainable global communities. Where would you find hope? Outside yourself is my first guess. Experts? Brilliant people? Remember the definition of insanity...continuing to do the same thing while expecting different results. Hmmmm....

Shiny yellow and brown leaves cover the ground. Downpour yesterday and sunshine today confirm that the trees in my little acre have lost 90% of their leaves. Earlier Dave cut up some smaller logs for our wood stove. Then football beckoned. As I stack the freshly cut wood, motorcycles rumble by, probably from the Harley shop a couple miles up the road. (One summer we counted 86 motorcycles in one group passing our house on the way to the Interstate.) I've had my share of muffler burns. Even now our old 1976 Honda 550 4-cylinder is in the shop getting road worthy. Two gas stations four miles away are having a price war. Today $2.07/gallon. Then I cleaned out several buckets we collected rain water in this past summer. We're still experimenting with that. This week Dave will "mow" the yard again - sucking up the leaves, shredding them with the blade then dropping back down. We'll get the garden bed ready for winter. Our little harvest is over. We're still considering a baby-sized green house. These are some of our efforts in transition for what we think lies ahead.

Yesterday I spent time with Janis and the girls. Many hugs and kisses; much talking - Grace explained how the heart (with her hand over her chest) is where love and happiness come from and I explained how the heart also keeps you alive; one book reading - Dora helped Troll be nice; a little eating - pumpkin pie for the first time (definitely with whipped cream); and some shopping. Violet chose a cardboard book about Baby Jesus and the story of His birth with a little yellow button that when you press it plays Silent Night. We were only half way home when Janis told Violet to "quit pressing the button" and Violet..."It started by itself." (The button was only an ON button, not an ON/OFF.) I'm sure she went to sleep that night with the book under her pillow and her finger on the button.

The girls have no idea how difficult life may become. They find love and happiness now in family and faith.

LESSON: The Creator who is Author of our life is Source of our hope.

NYTimes DOT EARTH blogger, Kevin C. Revkin writes

"The stick, perhaps the most versatile plaything in history, was chosen along with the baby doll and skateboard by the people at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y.

...so basic, so unmanufactured, can be a springboard for the imagination, a link to the nonhuman world, and a reason to get outdoors.

Reusable. Recyclable. Renewable."