Posts

Don’t miss your window

/in /by

You know everything we do in life has a period when it is best by.

Marriage, children, working life, education and so many other of the things we do, are often set best in certain periods of our lives.

I have missed a lot of windows in my life, I will be the first to admit. Some of those misses, as time has passed have brought regrets and sadness. But life comes and goes as we plan. Living it at the moment in time when we are existing is probably the best path for all of us.

I recently spent the day doing what my folks have done for generations. Possibly not to the annual extent that we once practiced, since that meant we had something to eat all the year long.

That was harvesting, canning and freezing greens of various types.

I have always loved eating greens with a bit of fatback for seasoning and a piece of cornbread on the side. A meal is made of them.

I will have to admit my efforts were not as efficient as they could have been and I lost a lot of greens simply due to timing.

I didn’t have the time needed to press through all the greens, cook and process immediately. Thus, I lost several pounds of greens to turning and wilting over the subsequent days since the cutting.

Despite the delay, I am only one person, so there is only so much that can be accomplished while trying to keep life afloat.

But I will know next time to make sure I have adequate time to dedicate to the effort.

When I was little, the process was swifter, there were many hands, making the work lighter.

The cooking and processing were done as they came straight from the garden with no time to spare.

I can still see my grandmother’s iron pots lined up on tripods above a burning fire in the yard as each crop was processed for canning.

Even though it was several days of work, each crop went fast, because everyone focused their efforts on that and filled the root cellar for months to come with that vegetable. Then they moved on to the next one.

You couldn’t wait or you’d miss the window of goodness. Whether it was beans, corn, greens, beets or any other crop, they got our full attention.

So, for everything we pursue in life there is a window of goodness – when it is the best time for that life experience to come to pass. Now that doesn’t mean we can’t go to college in our eighties. I have known several people who accomplished degrees at that point in life. That also doesn’t mean we can’t get married, have children later in life, if biologically possible, although it does often require more energy than afforded to keep up with the responsibilities associated.

As it is said to everything there is a season, and as I worked through my step back into the process of canning and freezing greens, it reminded me, we must make the time to do what is needed when its required or we will loose part of our crop.

The same is true in life. We must make the time to do what we want during the window when everything is good for that purpose. Don’t miss your windows in life, once they are closed and painted shut, it’s hard to get them open again as time goes along.

Is it a God thing?

/in /by

Whenever I find myself facing an uncertain future, whether it’s in work or my personal life, ultimately, I always find myself praying for Divine intervention.
I ask for guidance. I ask for forgiveness. I ask for patience. I ask for inspiration.
It always seems I am asking Him for something. But seldom am I thanking Him for what He has already given.
From my personal experience, I know He hears and in His own way answers our requests. Sometimes the answer is no. We seldom understand that result. In fact, sometimes we interpret it, as He is not there. He is not listening. He has forsaken us.
From our own actions, many of us deserve to be forsaken but thankfully, as part of His family we will not be. We may not always get what our hearts desire. Our lives may not be easy. And sometimes they may be downright miserable. He is still with us.
In the face of what seems to be an ever-increasing presence of things that are ungodly being placed in front of us through media and in our own vision of the world around us,
I must conclude if there was ever a time for us to cry out to Him and ask His mercy upon us, it is now.
In recent weeks, I have been in prayer over lack of direction in my life, over falling short in His service and in trying to walk ever closer to Him. We all fall short of His love.
Yet, in the simplest thing, He can remind us “I am here, and I love you.”
I have a small golden key chain I was presented when I graduated from high school. I had never used it, only pulled it out and looked at it, thinking I will use it for a special occasion. Despite many years coming and going, I had not used it. I finally pulled it out and put my car keys on it. A small golden ball that served as a nut held the mechanism into place, thus holding the key ring into the golden circle into which it was mounted.
One day I went to the post office, I got out and the key ring fell apart dropping pieces to the ground. I bent over picked everything up and went on my way. I did not realize that the small golden ball that served a nut was not among what I picked up. I realized later at home it was gone. It could have unscrewed and fell off anywhere, I checked my clothes, the floorboard of the car, around the house, to no avail.
A couple a weeks passed when the thought hit me as I pulled into the post office again, go and look where you were parked that day. So, I did. I walked over to the empty parking space, took two steps beyond where my driver’s door was and there it sat. It had rolled and sat there for two weeks with no vehicles rolling over it. Not a soul had noticed this little golden ball the size of a large bb. After I had become acclimated that I would never be able to use the key chain again. God sent a thought, moved my body, and there was something I had lost, a piece of something I cherished just lying on the ground safe in a place it should not have been.
I have spent a lifetime in the music industry. I have strived to attain recognition for my music on the mainstream charts. That, along with awards is one of the ways we gauge our acceptance and success. I can tell you; those things just do not just happen. Behind the scenes, there are many actions taken by you and folks who support you which facilitate such an opportunity. I have been praying tirelessly for career guidance for months. This past week, I was notified that I had topped the Cashbox Magazine music charts with a song I wrote with Cotton Carrier and released years ago – “God’s Children” performed with the Watkins Family.
Never in my life had I been on the Cashbox charts, and then out of the blue I was number 1 on a mainstream entertainment chart with a song picked out of the blue by radio presenters with no behind the scenes promotion, no single release, not even trying. If that is not a God thing, I don’t know what is.
Look for the God things in your life. They are there, big and small. And when you find them, don’t forget to thank Him!