It's October yet again. Exactly three years ago, I embarked upon a 20-day campaign. This year, I'll embark upon a 45-day campaign as something is about to take place at the end of such a period. The campaign is about enjoying life's gifts, albeit God's gifts, while being a blessing to others--even when I'm the one who is in need of encouragement at this very moment.
Today, I decided to re-enact what happened last October as I was talking with God about my personal life and asked Him to fill in the blanks. Direction. I guess now I know better--who needs direction? All I have to do is follow. As I walked from my condo to the nearest McDonald's to have "lunch for breakfast", Southwest Chicken Salad to be exact, God enabled me to enjoy the scenery of my busy neighborhood. There's still beauty to be seen along the sidewalks: I noticed the colors of autumn in Hawaii, even if we really don't have such a thing here; I found a pomegranate tree; I also found the same baby shoes from last year hanging up on a cable wire.
During my walk, I "stumbled upon" my brother who was doing his laundry, happily content doing so. Just watching him (yes, I guess I should've helped) fold the clothes taught me a lot--and even if what he's got is something I wish I had, I still didn't end up doing my laundry today. I did enjoy the quality time with him during his laundry time.
Then, I discovered a beautiful blog called A Holy Experience. It is a blog by a Farmer's wife who is a mother to half a dozen beautiful children. She homeschools each one of them, and with that, she is blessed with the richness of staying at home with them, seeing them grow, and watching them enjoy the beauty of nature all around them--catching dragonflies, chasing herons, and enjoying the fruits of the trees in their orchard. She has a beautiful life, a beautiful family--then I realized, beauty is what we make it. Beauty is what we choose to see. Beauty is what we choose to live. When God looked at His Creation, He said it was "good". Yes, we as sinners may mess up this beautiful world, and it only gets more messed up, but it is a choice to still see the beauty around it--and more importantly, be a part of that beauty.
As I listened to the tune playing in the background while reading the blog, I was inspired to play some random tunes on my own electronic piano, as God has blessed me with the gift of music--to be able to compose music on the spot and play the piano by ear. I really should spend more time basking in the beauty of the music that God has given me while letting others share in on the experience...rather than keeping it all to myself when I tuck myself away in isolation.
The author of the blog happens to be the author of One Thousand Gifts, a New York Best Seller. My friend had told me about this book, and I asked her to accompany me to the bookstore to buy the book. Instead, she invites me to dinner with her family, who also happens to be my extended family from church. I accepted her kind invitation, and our other friend who also joined us for dinner just so happened to have the book, and she let me borrow it for a week.
Dinner near the North Shore was amazing, the company was amazing, the food was amazing, and so was the coffee from next door.
Today was simply a beautiful day--and though I have been hurting, and though I have been on my knees crying, and though I had spent most of the morning just sleeping the day away so that the pain would go away...God still blessed...and beautifully so...with such grandeur and musical overtures, my heart is overflowing with love and blessings...to the extent that I'm able to reply kindly to those who have been unkind.
If we focus less on ourselves and more on God, and more on His blessings, we will be able to see the beauty of His work all around us -- and miraculously so, we can be a part of such grand beauty.
