Sometimes, you find yourself staring up at the sky….in love with the world and you don’t know why.

It’s all so big…and you’re so small…but somehow you’re a part of it all…big by association.

The breeze washes over you and the grill is going and everything just feels right somehow.

Now, of course, it could be that you’re just finishing the last swallow of a really good beer…your one beer of the night…to be savored and enjoyed….and the feelings of mellowness and inclusiveness that you’re experiencing are just a by-product of a very slight buzz.

That could be what’s putting a shine on your existence.

It could be that it’s just the beer talking.

But I doubt it.

I got up early this morning…an hour earlier than I usually do. I think that I must have a sinus infection or something…my eyes feel like they’d like to pop out of my head.

I need to smear some more Vaporub up in my nostrils or something.

IT KILLS!!! aghhhhhh….MY HEAD!!!

Kidding mostly…it’s not that bad.

I guess that the trick is to figure out a way to stay in love with the world while you’re in moderate discomfort?

It’s always the same breeze blowing around me…the same stars…the birds…the wind in the trees…new grass coming up at the arrival of Spring…it’s the same whether I’m hurting a little or not.

I just need to remember that.

In my family, growing up, my mother was a good example of someone who sought the “good” in life. She sought the good no matter how much discomfort she was in.

I don’t think that we tend to want to focus on someone else’s pain or discomfort…it’s hard to remember that…it’s a hard memory to sustain.

There’s no reason to do that. It’s not good to pick the wrong element to focus on…you can waste a lot of time doing that.

My mom was in a lot of both pain and discomfort the last decade and a half of her life.

She hurt…but she loved life.

It’s funny that the “loving life” part of her years is the part that I remember over all the pain she was in.

Pain…not discomfort like a pop-eyed sinus infection.

She was in pain…but there was something else going on…..

There was something else….

I think that she sought God…and I think that she found Him.

That’s pretty straightforward…no need to beat around the bush on that one…I think she knocked often, laying there in bed with her Bible on her lap, and the door opened for her.

She took the time to notice…she had the time to notice.

The door opens…and the breeze blows and washes over us.

There is something real blowing through our lives …(Gads….it’s an ATMOSPHERIC CONDITION, YOU WEIRDO!!! THE HEAT HITS THE COLD, THE TIDE, THE SWELLS…BREEZE IS GOING TO BLOW…AND BECAUSE IT HITS YOUR CHEEK JUST RIGHT AFTER A SINGLE BEER IS NO REASON TO WANT TO VALIDATE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD…LIGHTEN UP, WEIRDO!)…what was I saying? Oh….something real blowing through our lives that’s there for us to notice…and it’s there whether we ever pay attention and notice it or not.

All of our “theology”…all of our thinking and scratching at the door…all our efforts to reach God fall short and it’s frustrating and maddening sometimes…but then that breeze hits us “just right” and we remember something that was there all the time.

I’m rambling…it’s too early and I haven’t had my coffee yet and I’m rambling…but it’s so windy out this morning and the wind chimes reminded me of something….reminded me of something….