We shut all the windows and turned on the furnace yesterday evening. This morning, I had to turn on all the lights in order to see what I was doing.
There's a scarlet cardinal outside on the front lawn- he blends in with the leaves scattered across the grass. The sky above has that deep quality of blue that it only gets this time of the year.
Keith is mission commander of yet another training mission- it's his eighth one. I have to keep this in mind when I call him. He's completely in the "let's get this done and done right and done right away" mode of thinking. So, if I absentmindedly call, looking vaguely for encouragement and sympathy, about, say, the window that is jammed, I find instead brisk instructions barked out over the phone. And then he has to go, because something else needs his attention.
When he comes home, he is worn out and exhausted. As soon as he's settled on the couch, I crawl up next to him and snuggle in. His phone rings two or three times an hour, at least- even late into the night. He's up at three in the morning and sometimes doesn't get home until seven in the evening. He tries to stay up so he can play his video game or watch tv, but he starts falling asleep after about an hour, the poor guy.
I'm so aware of the good things that surround me. Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I walked outside into the thin sunlight and just watched the blue sky and the wind in the leaves. Life is good.
I've branched out from the New Testament to the Old Testament- very old stomping grounds for me, and full of pitfalls and ghosts. But I'm not reading by myself, so it's as though I see it from both the old perspective and the new one.
This whole time, I keep expecting life to go back to normal. But now I realize that it never will. It's so strange that although I know from past experience that life is change, still, my own growth takes me by surprise. Like- wait a minute!- there's still more to learn, to understand? Who knew!
