Autumn

Fall is quite possibly my favorite time of year, especially in Michigan. Colorado had a beautiful fall too, but it literally pales in comparison to the colors of a Michigan autumn. I’m pretty sure that if and when I leave Michigan, one of the things I will miss the most about the area is the fall. The weather that is cool enough for a comfy sweater, but still warm enough to be able to go outside and do any summer activity as well. And as all the harvest activities start, there are hayrides and apple cider or hot chocolate around a warming bonfire. Cornmazes and pumpkin patches, leaf piles and trick or treaters. The amazing color display of leaves through the huge trees in the region; vibrant reds and oranges with splashes of yellow. I drive the long back way to my church this time of year purely so I can enjoy the beautiful painting God has laid out so perfectly. And the awe-inspiring sunrises that God gives right when I’m driving into work this time of the year. During the summer, I get to drive to work at 7am and the sun is already up, I head home and the sun doesn’t go down until late. During the winter, the sun comes up after I’m already at work and is down before I leave work…talk about depressing. But during the fall, I get a sunrise each morning with enough light in the evening to feel like I haven’t lost the entire day, followed by a warm nightfall that tends to be a lot clearer than the rest of the year so that the stars can be seen shining brightly. My favorite!

I could go on, but really I just needed to express the bursting my heart feels this time of the year, and after sitting in my car staring at the sunrise for a while this morning, it couldn’t be contained anymore!


"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
He puts the deep into storehouses."
Psalm 33:6-7


"The day is Yours, and Yours also the night;
You established the sun and moon.
It was You who set all the boundaries of the earth;
You made both summer and winter."
Psalm 74:16-17

Once More With Feeling

I am up at 5 in the morning in Charleston. In reality, I've been up since 4am. Although this may not be such an oddity at home, it is here. I'm back for my grandparents 50th anniversary, where my mom's side of the family is having somewhat of a reunion get-together as this side tends to be hermits and doesn't get together yearly the way my dad's side loves to do. Its been quite the hullabaloo getting everyone together, not the least of those being my sister. She has been especially unreliable lately now that she has her fiance and avoids talking or seeing the family as much as possible often. She told us weeks ago that he and she would both be gracing us with their presence out here, with no further details. She then informed us that they'd be getting their own hotel and rental car since family wasn't "ok" with them staying in the same room together. I then got to Charleston and found out that family didn't even know she was bringing him along. Then, as we tried to get details from her to know when she would be in, she started giving the go-around, telling us that he had reserved the flights and that she didn't know the details, she'd have to tell us later. After two days of calling and texting her continuously and being ignored, she finally emailed my mom today and told her that he and she would be flying into another town two hours away and would drive down with a rental car. Mind you, neither of them have credit cards or anything, so we're not sure how they expected to get a rental car. Not our problem when they're two hours away. And if that weren't fun enough, that's just about when the real fun started.

She then called me this morning at 4am in a panic to tell me that she found out he lied about the whole thing; he never got tickets, he was just telling her he did to make her happy, but they weren't actually going. I have no idea what the real story is, she has become such a pathological liar that we never know what is truth and what isn't. So I ended up getting up and scrambling to find a ticket for her so that she could still come out here. It leaves out of Denver at 7am. I might murder her and never talk to her again if she doesn't make the flight, which sounds like a distinct possibility because they keep doing other things (like stopping to put minutes on her phone or get cigarettes). And then she threw a fit at me when I told her it meant she was here until Tuesday, and that I shouldn't have booked the flight until she was on the road to the airport. I'm not quite sure why I even bothered to go out of my way to get her a ticket, I almost feel like I should have just let her stew and suffer rather than save her again when she keeps making mistakes.

Every time I'm around my family, I have a renewed realization that they make me an angrier person. They get so angry on the road, or make fun of people or handle things in not the best way, it sets me off or makes me boil. I prayed a good amount tonight for strength to handle these situations better; so it seems of course God gave me the opportunity to handle it better with a call at 4am. It's a struggle. I feel like screaming and letting out a lot of pent-up feelings right now. It's hard to have strength and patience and love when it's continually tried. I guess this is just calling for more 6am prayer now. Lots of prayer that she makes her flights and I don't take it out on her for the rest of the weekend...