Love in the Leaves

The leaves are weary. The sky is clouded over, with a slight breeze. Fall is a promise, but far off and inconceivable, except for the overworked trees that whisper for surrender. 

My people who are long gone also whisper to me. It seems we are all transparent curtains, layers of years and generations passing through. Our days are but a breath, here today and gone tomorrow. My aging parents and in-laws talk of pain, of the supreme effort it can be to simply get through a day. They also talk of heaven, of glorious peace and rest. I am lucky to still have them all, yet I take them for granted. I deny that they will ever not be here. I don't say all the things that I need to say. Maybe if I don't say them, they won't leave me. My own joints are rusting up and my body reminds me that I need to take care of it. It's not the years as much as the mileage. It's not the time, it's the juice.

How shall we then live? Sucking the marrow out of life, but the toll unbearable if our excesses take over. The steady, simple treadmill does not suit me. I must throw bombs into each day, lest two of them end up the same. There are prices to be paid, no matter how we slice it. Interesting that the Scriptures say that we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. I believe that. But there are also all those gray places in between, where we have multitudes of choices that impact our lives but are just that, varieties on a theme. Balance, oh that word. What is that and how do we find it?

Our running about, our seeking for survival, money, fame, approval...so much is frivolous and in the end, silly. The houses will burn, the roofs will rot, the mortar will crumble. The legacies may or may not be remembered. Apparently, so much is vanity. But once again, it is the people, the relationships, that matter and will ripple forth out of the splash. Ripple wide and far, affecting the whole of the world in ways we cannot fathom. Does it matter if anyone fills in that credential, that space on the paper? Not in the end. All our accreditation is as much as a dung heap if we haven't loved those who God brings across our path. Him, the great lover and giver of life. He, who does most things backwards from what our natural wisdom directs. I love, because He first loved me.