The Day Stopped For Awhile 2/17/2024

 Good Morning,

I am just sitting here in relative darkness, working by firelight and the screen from my lap top. I have a small fire burning in the fireplace to heat up our home. My mug is filled with Door County German Chocolate Cake Coffee. I am warm and content, so it is time to write.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. 

I think we all have experienced this emotion I want to speak of today. I am not sure how to describe it. So your memory and imagination might need to fill in the blanks. There are two ways to experience a day that seems to stop for awhile. During that moment, minute or hour, something good, if not great happened. For instance the day our daughter was born, it seemed like an eternity for her lungs to open and we heard her cry out with life. It really was only a few seconds before that joyful sound filled the room. For me the world stopped for awhile that day and nothing else mattered. I recall our wedding day and I really can't recall much of that day except hearing my wife say "I do". There are many days of great experiences, but only a few are those that seemed to stop the world in it's tracks for a moment. 

Then there are those experiences that we incur that do the same thing, but they are caused by a bad moment that takes your breath away and you just can't move by what you have heard or seen. You go numb and your body and mind seem to be in slow motion. For instance the phone rang one night and it was a hospital and my dad on the line. They were informing me that my mother was in critical condition and needed to be flown to a larger medical center. Within minutes I was on my way to that medical center to be there with my mother. It was a three hour trip. 45 minutes into the trip my phone rang again. The hospital chaplain was on the line. My mother never made it to the medical center. She passed away before the helicopter left the smaller institution. That stretch of highway never seemed so lonely. I recall turning around but I can't tell you where it was or if there was any traffic at all.

Now, when the phone rings later at night, the day always seems to stop for a second or two as I take a deep breath and answer the call. It seems that those calls are a practice run for bad news or some disaster.

My thought for the day is this. Make sure to celebrate those happy moments that take your breath away and stop the world for a short time. Burn them into your heart and mind. For the other days will also arrive and for some reason they are the ones that stay freshest in your mind. 

Pass on some love today to someone who is in need of a kind word or action. Recall a memory that was so good it seemed to stop the world just for you. Have a practice run for a great moment in life. 

Marty