Thank you all so very much for your kind sentiments and words of encouragement. I am quite blessed by your emails, comments and prayers. Once again, I find my cup is overflowing.

2005 ended in a cacaphony of chaos, building and building toward Christmas, closing abrubtly with the death of my grandfather, and allowing (for a time) everything to stop. It was a peaceful yet eerie silence. 2006 took off at our normal crazy pace, and it seems the sum of the "stuff undone" in 2 weeks off amounts to about 4 weeks of "catching up"!. We are still there now, in the "catching up" phase (although I do believe we see the light at the end of the tunnel...).

Henry David Thoreau once said, "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." Being busy as we are, the temptation is often to bemoan the extent of our "busy-ness". We find ourselves saying we don't have time for this, time for that, life is passing by too quickly...we are not different than many people we know. It is when everything stops that we have a moment to look and realize that we are living quite abundantly. We are feasting without tasting the sweetness of the banquet that's before us. Weekends are a flurry of team meetings, practices, homework, meals in, meals out, chores -- only a portion of what "needs to be done" ever actually gets done. The schedule is impossible (on paper), we are often meant to be 2 places at once. Somehow we manage. Deadlines are met, games are won (or lost), a page turns and it's a new day. I had an old math teacher that expressed Thoreau's sentiment quite simply, "Be here now." He didn't say stop, or slow down even, he said (in essence) whatever it is you choose to do, be there fully when you do it. Engage in it. Enjoy it. Remember it. Whatever it may be.

I find this to be true even in my walk with God. "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him" (Psalm 34:8). Many spend time in God's service, in church, in bible study, "doing time" with/for God. Eating, but never tasting. Sustaining life, surviving -- but not imbibing. I suppose you could take someone else's word for it: God is Good. But the scripture tells us to check it out for ourselves. "Taste and See". This seems to require us to shift from the role of observer to the role of participant. So this is my prayer -- that I might better engage my senses as I plod on through my life. That I might really listen, touch, smell, taste and see -- we are told that life is delicious. I intend to enjoy every bite.

++Thank you for this hectic chaotic life. I can't imagine anything different -- I love this time in my life. You have filled my life with warmth and love and laughter. I can barely keep up with it all. Help me to "taste and see" -- as You know, I'm eating on the run :).