Rethink

     I remember visiting a friend in Colorado and being in awe of the crisp, clear blue winter sky and looking over at the mountains stretching into the horizon and asking "do you ever get tired of this?" I asked him "Do you ever forget where you live and what you see?  Does the beautiful ever fade away?  Do you ever take it for granted?"  My friend quickly responded "nope, never!"
    Now that I live in the mountains myself I can say that I don't grow tired of the beauty...it doesn't fade away. But if I am honest there are other things that fade away.
 

       The other things that often fade away before I have realized it are all around me.  The things that seem to fade or slowly run together like the water moving across a painted canvas are the things like deep friendship.  Friendship that seems to span the miles; friendships that have carried the burdens; friendship that have cried from the depths of one's being and yet continue to gather together to celebrate; friendship that reminds you to be happy in where you are and to stay connected to a community of faith even in the brokenness and to tend to the needs of your family above all things.
   The things that are taken for granted are the ability to settled into the life of acceptance.  Acceptance by a community of strangers that grows into a family.  Settling into the comfort of an old pew that has heard the stories of faith over the ages and then invites one into the sacred space of

the Divine.  I forget; I miss that there is a comfort found in the power of a storybook sanctuary; the comfort and power of being connected something more powerful than yourself. I gloss over the stones that are made of tiny grains of sand are held together by One that has stood for me through the ages of time and isn't afraid of the weight of the world.
     There are things that get swept away by the tast of the day; like the love of a spouse or the laughter of a child.  There are grains of our days that wash away as we rush the conversation at dinner or miss that last hug as they walk out the door.  There are the everyday things like a bundle of flowers that are gathered in a vase that when left unseen cannot unveil the power of love that stretched years of walking into the open field to gather the beautiful yellow bloom that symbolizes that spring is coming; that new life is here.
     This season I am embarking on a daily 'challenge'.  A 40 day challenge of looking; seeing; thinking about things in a light.  The challenge offers a daily word and invites me to capture a picture that describes that word for me.  This challenge calls me to rethink how I view the everyday...how I view the ordinary.  This challenges me to rethink how I take things for granted and what I am allowing to fade into the background.

I want to rethink the daily...I want to rethink the ordinary.  I want to see with new eyes.

What do you need to rethink? What part of your life needs to be brought into a new light?  What things have lost their true meaning and need to be revised?  Are you up for the challenge to rethink the world around you?