I am turning 50 tomorrow. I know it is a cliche but I really do not know where the time went. I really do feel that just yesterday I was playing in the ditch with Dale, taking pictures for the school yearbook, studying in college of beginning my first teaching job. It comforts me to know that I would not want to go back and relive any part of my life. It might be fun to visit again but not to go back and actually live there. The good is always tinted with the bad. Achievements are always bittersweet with the memories of disappointments. I want to look ahead - to learn from the first 50 so that the next 50 are even better. There is no benefit in regrets or reliving the past over and over.

I love looking around me and seeing all of the positive aspects of me life.

My family - watching my dear nieces and nephews now raising kids of their own.

Mom and Dad aged but still sharp and with so much to share and impart to

us children. Friendships that are deep due to the time and care that has gone into

them for so long. I am 50 and I do not want to go back - I want to go forward.

Thank you Lord for the life that you have blessed me with.

Let it Rain

It has been hot here. Sweaty not wanting to move hot. Today though I have been reminded of one of the things I love about our summers. Monsoon season. This just means that it will rain a little bit most days.

Rain is different here. Don't get me wrong it is still wet and it can cause puddles, floods and lots of sticky mud. Usually we watch the clouds building up in the sky. There have been times that we literally travel with the rain when we go to Albuquerque or back to Gallup. It rains and stops, rains and stops, rains and stops and really it is the same storm that is moving in our same direction.

What I really love though are the rainbows. The sun can be shining brightly in the east and it is dark and stormy in the west or vica versa - then the drizzles and light rains refract the light causing the sky to be filled from end to end with a beautiful arching rainbow which is usually double as well. Some are so beautiful that is almost hurts to look at the shimmer and cold colors of the glistening arc.

I also love verga. I did not know this word until I moved to New Mexico. Verga is when you can see it raining in the distance. There are streaks of rain that you really can see but it never makes it to the ground. The rain literally dries before it gets to earth. It really is amazing.

I have saved the best of last - the smell. I am not sure I can describe it. It is a fresh tantalizing scent of clean dust, sagebrush, yarrow, and washed cotton. Even that does not do it justice. In the midwest rain carries the scent of grass and green and damp and is lovely in its own way. Rain here has more of the smell of life in it. The scent carries the sighs of the vegetation and animals that have become so sere that leaves, paws and atmosphere are prune -ish with lack of moisture. The scent of rain tells me that God has not forgotten the life in the desert and it is His promise of feeding creation.

In a place that gets only gets a few inches annually rain is life and I think is our sign of God's love and care. Perhaps the is the essence in the rain that I cannot quite describe - God 's love. All I know is that no candle, air freshener or soap will ever be able to duplicate it. There is no scent that is bottled that contains God's love. It is simply there for the taking and provides life. Like the rain in the desert - makes life sweeter, cleaner and life enhancing. Let God rain on you with His living water. Even the desert comes alive with God's water.

I was thinking today about all of the different ways to be hot. Right now I am sweaty hot. My clothes are sticking to me where my body and chair touch. The air is still and the temperature is about 90. Even with the fans - until the sun goes down it will just be hot.

There are other hots:

fever

on a lucky streak

oven/stove

out with a good looking guy

red, embarrassed

sauna healthy hot

dressed to kill

something that is liked A LOT

understanding

I love words. I like how in English there are so many different ways to say the same thing. Think of the word walk - you can strut, gambol, trudge, skip, slog, prance, amble, stride, step.... you get the idea. Each one gives a different picture.

Like all else in this world how can you think of the beauty of communication and not know that there is a GOD? Our creative words image our creative creator. So with that let me say - goodbye, so long, farewell, tata, see you, later, bye. Get it? :-)