Sunday, October 18, 2020

Sunday Thoughts: An Unexpected Life

 I've heard crickets from the Pitch Wars contest I entered.  My book about an American Christian cult doesn't seem to have connected. That's life. I still love my book. I love it micro and macro. The joy of a creative life is wonderful. I hope you have spent some of this week pouring out creative energy. 

I didn't expect to be fifty-six years old and be wondering what I was supposed to do with my life.  Have you sought to achieve something but realized you're on the Oregon trail and don't have enough provisions?  I didn't expect to be estranged from certain family members. I didn't expect that making my bed was going to be one of my great achievements. Are you living an unexpected life? 

I do feel that most of my days have been spent putting out fires and then resting till the next fire blows up. Life in Oregon and the rest of the west where the wildfires were raging, I am sure that folks wanted to do so much with their lives this summer but ended up dealing with fires. Or here with the hurricanes, there were plans but instead the aftermath was what happened. There is Covid worldwide, and we are all limping along. Are you living an unexpected life?

I didn't know that I was born with a genetic defect that was going to weigh heavier and heavier as I grew older. I didn't know that I would pass this stuff to my children. But here I am, braver than I ever expected to be. Brave wasn't the word that I thought would dominate my life. But here I am. Are you living an unexpected life? 

Here is the deal. Live. Do your small acts of kindness with great joy. Be merciful. Find the road to forgiveness. Trust that every person is made in the image of God. Celebrate the goodness in people. Forgive everything else. Make a difference. Create your art. Live your life, whatever it is.

A quote for your pocket. 

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me. Carl Sandburg

A doodle.




No comments: