Insights for November #bloglikecrazy

First let me give you insight into this months blog, and how I came to this idea.  I had been thinking for awhile about noticing the little things in life, I sort of started cataloging in my mind events or items I would notice each day.  The thought behind this activity was to be more present, notice the beauty in the world around me; the little dog peering from the car next to me in car line, the loving couple holding hands in the park.  My first thought was I would share these on my twitter page daily to hopefully encourage others to notice the beauty in their world…but as I would write these little nuggets in my head they quickly grew beyond the 140 characters of this medium.  At the same time I was reading on-line and there was a November challenge to blog like Crazy!  The challenge was to blog every day of November, and since one of my challenges with my blog has been to be more prolific, this seemed like a perfect marriage of two great ideas.  So although I am a little late to the party let’s begin!

It’s a crisp November morning, cool, although not as cool as, one like me, would hope for the 3rd of November, and I am headed on my routine 2 mile walk.  This walk takes me through pastures of cows and horses, I walk with my faithful German Shepherd and my aunt and uncle’s dog tags along.  My favorite part is at the top of a fairly steep hill where I can gaze over the rolling pastures, admire the antique barn and local vineyard.  There are typically no people on my walk, but today was different.  I came up the hill and around the curve to see the sweetest little lady, probably in her eighties, diminutive in size with a head full of snow white hair and smile upon her face.  She was wearing an old very worn flannel top over her long skirt, her hair pulled up into a perfect bun and her shoes worn almost completely off on the top!  I didn’t get the feeling it was because of money her shoes were almost wore away, she lives in a fine home, just these were her “yard shoes” as my grandmother would say.  I imagined that they were very comfortable and she just hated to throw them away.  She was holding a small pot, the kind you would use to plant a small plant, and her house keys hung on a ribbon around her neck.  She smiled kindly as we approached and reached out her hand to the dogs to pet them.  She told me how she once had a dog like mine and wished she still did, I replied Xena had been a very good dog.  I hurried along not wanting to pause my exercise, she must have thought how crazy I was, her generation certainly did not have a smart phone pushed into their braziers counting their steps for the day!  As I turned and walked back having reached my half way point I noticed she was bent over in the road filling the small pot with something?  Upon closer look she was filling the pot with the new gravel on the road, she let me know as I came closer that she had an awful rut in her driveway from people whipping in too fast and she was trying to fill it back in.  She went on exasperated as to why her family couldn’t just slow down as they pulled in and not make such a rut.  I thought to myself it will take her 20-30 pot loads to fill any kind of rut in a driveway! LOL  At that moment came the insight of the day, slow down – she knows something my generation and the next need to learn.  Slow down and make a simple meal for our families, instead of fast food, slow down and spend time listening to each other and our children, instead of driving them to 20 activities a week.  Slow down and enjoy the simple things in life, like filling a small pot with excess gravel to fill ruts in our lives.

What do you need to slow down and do today?  What’s in your pot?  Do you need to make a change?

Thanks be to GOD!

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matt. 6:34

#bloglikecrazy