All Around Me

As most of you know, the new job I started back in February came with a built in commute. I decided that since I would only be there 4-6 times a month I could deal with having to drive an hour each way. Although I don't enjoy this drive at 11:30pm when I'm tired from working 8 hours, at 1:30pm it is generally pleasant. Unlike my commute when we lived in southern California, it's not an hour because I'm driving 12 miles in traffic, it's an hour because I drive 50 miles on a two lane highway. I get to look at green fields, farmhouses, trees, sheep, an occasional stream, and once even a deer leaping through a field. It's pretty peaceful and it gives me time to think.

On my most recent drive to work I was listening to my new Margaret Becker CD (Thank you, honey for the great Christmas gift) Just Come In. I have been a Margaret Becker fan since I first heard her music when I was 15. There are several reasons she is one of my favorite artists. I enjoy her music style and I love acoustic guitar. I like her throaty voice and most of her songs are in the perfect key for me to sing along and feel like it sounds halfway decent. Most importantly I think she has great lyrics. Her songs spoke to me when I was a teenager, and they still do today as a wife and mother. I think that says a lot. I'm the kind of person who the lyrics are almost more important then the music. If the words are lame, I lose patience with the song real quick.

So, I was driving to work, enjoying the sunshine and the beauty around me, listening to great music and the song Feel It All came on. It says:

"I think I heard your voice floating on the evening wind/ And felt you near in the touch of a friend/ This is life as it should be this is life complete/ Cracking the surface of every breath and finding you there/ In the center of it/ In the beauty of the morning in the rhythm of the rain/ In the symphony of laughter as it plays across a face/ In the colors of creation painting sunsets in the fall/ I want to feel it all"

I consider myself to be a sensory person. Sound, feel, sight are all important and make experiences much more meaningful to me. Listening to this song made me appreciate even more the beauty on my drive to work. It was also a good reminder not to take things for granted, and to remember to appreciate God's presence in the things around me. Here are a few places that have stood out to me lately...

* Emily's shining eyes as she shares a new epiphany
* Katrina's tight, spontaneous hugs
* Hearing and seeing the geese flying back north
* Drinking a hot cup of tea and watching the rain
* Smelling the roses my husband brought me

I don't know if it's appreciating the small things or seeing God's work in everything around me. Either way I find myself more grateful and more aware. I hope you feel God's presence all around you!