Friday, September 3, 2010

Taste, Time, and Tea



Summer is close to ending.  Although I'll be glad to wave goodbye to the intense heat and welcome the glorious colors of autumn, I'll be sad that another year is over halfway gone...again.  I sometimes wonder if time is not our enemy.  Certain duties require a specific amount of time, and if not fulfilled, we need more time.  You know how our parents are always talking about how fast their youth came and went, how we'll know what it's like when we're their age, and how fast the years have gone by?  Just think, tomorrow we could be saying the same thing.  Life is a vapor, yet it can be glorious and beautiful.  Think of the birth of a baby.  Brought squealing and screaming into the world, the little bundle eventually grows faster and faster.  The years speed by until finally everything has vanished.  Old age creeps up and the end draws closer.  Life can be dismal if we look through a pessimistic lens.  However, if we see time as an opportunity to live life to the fullest extent, we experience much more fullness of joy.  Because God made us for who we are, since He was gracious enough to grant us life and breath, we ought to thank Him with every part of our being!  Life- though gloomy at times- is a miracle, no matter what evolutionists say.  We do have something to live for, and we were created in God's image (Genesis 1:26-28), so thankfully we don't have apes for ancestors.

Anyone who knows me well can tell you how avid a reader I am.  Give me a good book and I'm happier than a bee in honey.  Just recently Mama took Grace and me to our local library.  Honestly, though we've been here in Barnesville for over a year now, this was our first visit.  Though small, our library is everything I had hoped plus much more.  They may not have a big movie selection, but who cares after the sight of all those books!  Even the smell is intoxicating!  I felt like a giddy child as I perused the shelves.  I wanted to dance through the entire building, sing at the top of my lungs, and hug every book lovingly in my arms.  I was that starved for good literature.  I guess books have that kind of an impact upon me.  Unfortunately, a library has rules, and loud disturbances are prohibited.  I had to contain my exuberance.

Before I reached the end of two shelves I had already found James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Agatha Christi.  Imagine my joy then! (I don't have to search out Jane Austin anymore now that I've finally read all of her novels.)  I couldn't take home very book that I wanted because each was fat and thick. (Juicy, just like I like them!)  Fourteen was my limit.  My next visit will be looking for Elizabeth Gaskill and Robert Louis Stevenson, plus getting more Dickens and Dumas. (Remember, I couldn't take every book I wanted.)  Since I’ll have most of the books to look over next time, I could find many other great classics!  A library is truly a reader's haven.

What do you enjoy reading?

There isn't anything like Southern hospitality.  Unless one actually visits the Southland, they'll never know what they are missing.  During the cool months it's nice to take a walk underneath the coloring leaves.  Even amidst our hot weather it's grand to have an air-conditioned house (talk about thankfulness).  A rainy day is best for snuggling up on the bed with a good book.  Something about the rain makes me feel warm and secure.  Must be something about being enclosed in the hose while God's mighty and majestic wonder reigns all around us.  I actually sleep best during a pattering rain.

I believe creation is truly more vibrant in the beautiful South. Perhaps I'm prejudiced. (No offense to the other parts of the world.)  The sun seems brighter, the moon smiles sweeter, the stars twinkle and shine more splendidly, the flowers smell more fragrant, and the trees seem greener and taller.  Again, no offense.  Y'all could probably say the same thing.  Did I mention our well-known, Southern-made tea?

Isn't life wonderful?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If there were a like button, I'd like this 10 times over :)

Rachel said...

Thank you, Chase.

Anonymous said...

May I also reccomend Thomas Hardy (especially Tess of the D'Ubervilles)and Victor Hugo.

Rachel said...

Thank you! I shall certainly check them out.