All In A Day

Yesterday, I spent the entire day outside, except for an hour I spent eating dinner and taking a shower.

It was glorious.

It started at 8:30 in the morning with the Forest Therapy sessions we offered through Firstfruits. For two plus hours our group of eight women were led on a discovery of the beauty of the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the heart of God’s creation. The summer-like weather was the perfect backdrop for our transformation from our daily stresses and anxiety to pure and powerful peace. There is a calm that can only be found when we stop talking, to others and to ourselves, and enter into the quiet of nature. It’s in that calm that we can notice the leaves waving to us, the smell of the pines, the sound of the crickets, and the beat of the heart of God’s creation.

It was glorious.

When the guests left, my good friend Mary arrived, decked out in her Brewer baseball gear, toting a bag full of ballpark snacks. It was time for the first Brewer playoff game. I’m a huge baseball fan. I grew up in Chicago and some of my most cherished childhood memories were of my dad taking us to Wrigley Field to see a Cubs game. It is in my blood. Which made yesterday’s game a bit conflicting for me since the Brewers are playing the Cubs to move on to the next level and ultimately to the World Series.

Mary and I set up the TV outside on the fireplace and spent three hours basking in the beauty of the outdoors and the beauty of a victory! To top it all off, my daughter stopped over with two of our grandbabies and we spent time just sitting in the grass and laughing.

It was glorious.

When Mary left, it was time to get ready for a group of our college friends to come over for a fireside chat. We gathered around the fireplace to share conversation that ping-ponged back and forth between hysterical college escapades back in a time of carefree living to the sobering reality of our world today. As we are all nearing our seventh decade, we found it hard to believe the state of things. We never could have imagined the changes that are happening. It felt good to be able to vent and give words to our fears and sadness.

It wasn’t glorious but it felt good.

In one day, in front of the same fireplace, in the beauty of God’s creation, life played out in all its ups and downs, and through it all, I felt the caring heart of God. The calm and peace, the joy and laughter, the fear and sadness — all part of our daily lives. But through it all, quietly in the background is the powerful presence of a caring God.

It’s glorious.

Joan