Cloud Sightings and a Book Excerpt

Last night (Monday) I saw something pretty cool in the clouds (my wife pointed it out while we where pulling into our subdivision). So, up in the sky was a cloud that had "surrounded" the full moon. What was so cool was that this cloud had the definite shape of a dragon. There was no "I don't really see what you're talking about" - it was there, no blinking, just completely visible. Once I'd parked I went and got my camera and tripod, but by the time I got back outside the shape was dissolving, and by the time I got the camera setup it was gone (I was really bummed about that).

"When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough" by Harold Kushner is a really good book. The title caught my attention as I was looking through the bookshelves at my church's library, and so I checked it out. What was nice and a coincidence was that I had already read all of Ecclesiastes while I was on retreat. I add this because to fully appreciate the book you should read Ecclesiastes first - it's pretty short, around 12 chapters long. Anyways, there's two parts of the book that I want to share (in case you decide not to read the book).

From p.163, "What are things you absolutely must have and do so that you can feel that you have lived your life and not wasted it? In our explorations of Ecclesiastes and of our own lives, we have identified three things: Belong to people. Accept pain as part of your life. Know that you have made a difference."

From p. 172, "The Talmud says there are three things one should do in the course of one's life: have a child, plant a tree, and write a book. They all represent ways of investing our creative, generative energy in things which will endure after we are gone, and will represent the best that was in us. They offer us the reassurance that our lives were not in vain, and that the world is indeed better for our having passed through it."

I offer these two excerpts as reminders to myself that meaning and God are found everyday in my very ordinary life in very ordinary things.