If I could save time in a bottle... that would be one heavy bottle.

Friday, March 30, 2007

It's wet again: When the north moves down and the west moves over


For the time being, while our offices are under construction, my desk is situated next to an ancient looking white bordered window carved into a red wall. My new office won't have an outside window (or any window at all) so I'm soaking in all the sights and sounds I can while I've got it.

My window looks out over the deck of River City's youth building. Surrounded by oaks and laurels and mulch filled beds of greens and colors bordering the asphalt slab filled to capacity on Sunday's by cars and bikes and scuttling feet, my perspective affords me a view of the corner of the patio cover and the trees beyond. On a day like today, when the downpours range from non-existent to torrential I realize how much I enjoy grey days.

I've always thought that I'd love to live in the Pacific Northwest. Several years ago I was within days of moving up to live with several friends who had relocated there. I couldn't scrounge up the airfare/gas money to get there, and soon enough I abandoned the thought. It all worked out perfectly. Had I moved there, I would have missed all the things that have rolled my way since then. I don't think of it as an opportunity lost, I think of it more like a road not taken.

So when the grey days roll down I start to wonder if I could have taken the Northwestern greyness. Whenever a few rain days are strung together I wait to see if the blues roll in. They never do. I just don't mind the rain. Honestly I wish it would rain more often.

Part of me wonders recently if the moments spent looking out the window and thinking of places far away is the rearing up of the wanderer in me. I've never been in a state of homeostasis for this long. It seems I've got restlessness in the deepest parts of me. Maybe it's (relative) youth, maybe it's laziness, or maybe it's something different that defies labels. It just seems that when I sit still for too long, I start to twitch.

So here's to rainy days and being where you are at the present moment. Billy Joel says, "the good ol' days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems." In between both of the hypothetical yesterday's and tomorrow's is right now. It's all you've got. Make it sweet.

2 comments:

Bill said...

It's wanderlust. And it's not necessarily a bad thing. There is a lot of world to be explored & savored, but I believe you've got to have a place, where at the end of the day, offers you solace & peace. That place is home - where ever that may be. But, it needs to be.

The Austin Project said...

I know a place that is a little closer to the Pacific Northwest that welcomes wanderers and hippies as family. We don't get too much rain, but I have a hose I can put outside your window.

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As the self-proclaimed and happy-to-meet-you Small Group zealot at River City Community Church, my hope is that this page will make you laugh, learn, grow, smile, and most of all cherish the role you’ve been given to play in the Family. I believe Small Group leadership is the most strategic role in the local Church.