evening
Music plays in the distance, a ballad, the words are not clear, it is late for such in these parts. A light wind blows, warm almost, a very comfortable evening to sit and stare and ponder mysteries. A couple of months ago I was outside around this hour, and surpised to hear activity in the trees. Small sounds, sounds of eating, of quiet chatter. My light was on, I was looking around. Suddenly two shapes fly from the tallest pine, to the nearest, about a twenty foot leap. White shapes, squarish. I knew they were not bugs, I didn’t know what they were, I’ve never seen the like. I thought then they were flying squirrels, only we don’t have flying squirrels in these parts.
Turns out we do. I was looking for something else and ran across a description of our nocturnal gliders, Northern Flying Squirrels. The writers say it is seldom seen. I saw two of them, and have heard them several times before and since. Those pines are gone now, and I haven’t seen or heard them for a while,
This day was not, surprisingly, frittered away. I had my coffee and found tasks to keep me very busy all the day, opportunities to learn and grow, expanding my understanding… though not in spiritual realms. That’s the balance, taking new knowledge but not forgetting the old. The Spiritual conversations, Scripture, Church History, those things are my life blood, part of my soul that I need to engage regularly. Anything else is just icing right now, and maybe tools for using my passion in different ways.
Even though I was busy I miss a day which has a spiritual focus. This is why, I think, I never survived in other jobs… my desire to succeed in those places were increasingly and overwhelmingly stifled by that draw to the Spiritual things. I kid myself when I ponder other paths. This one path is the only way. I find myself discontent, but no where near where I have been along different paths. I am pulled this way, drawn by the depths of my soul, and while I may not have found the end or earthly success here, it is the only place I can be, the only place where my soul knows it is going the right direction. I’ve dared to try other tasks, and found that nothing suits, but that which God has called me to pursue. So, I pursue. Some people take decades to realize this.