Hot Rod Cowgirl

New beginnings and speedy lickety-split endings are part of life here as time passes by on planet earth…we have seasons of life much like the earth has weather seasons. There’s a time for everything…a time for hello and a time to say goodbye…a time to seed and plant the crops and a time to harvest in July…a brand new day begins each dawn and the end of day comes as the sun sets each evening. The last few weeks with the end of summer and the beginning of fall, beginnings and endings have been on my mind a lot, as time passes by so quickly…we get busy and forget to focus on the important people in our lives or the important blessings we have, until one day they are gone.

As I dwell on this simple truth, Ecclesiastes: Chapter 3: Verse:1-8, comes to mind as God spoke of a time for everything. I began to see how every part of our life has seasons or beginnings and endings. It’s how God designed life and yet, a new beginning comes and before we know it the ending sneaks up on us…from loosing those we love, to coming home after a week’s vacation, to giving birth, you blink and the baby is grown up with babies of their own…sometimes the ending comes with great pain and grief, while other times it comes with celebration upon college graduation with your diploma in hand…well deserved with true happiness!

I believe that life has a rhythm in all parts of it…a constant beat full of heart and passion with the joyful energy of our soul. Maybe because I love music and love to dance, counting double time or half time with ease, it makes sense to me that God would give rhythm to His earth and to our lives…two steps forward, one step back. The dance of life can be one of incredible joys, contrasted by times of great difficulties. Milestone moments in life can take our breath away, as we either accomplished our dreams or we lost someone or something very dear to our heart. It’s up to us how we choose to live our life and how we maneuver the times of highs and lows…as we keep dancing with all we’ve got.

I try to see the positive in life…the glass is half full and not half empty. I believe anything is possible when we put our mind to it…I laugh as I have said under my breath since I was in grade school “Where there’s a Marcy, there’s a way!” Even when things look their darkest, I hang on to my faith as I know but I know that somehow, someway, things will work out. Going through breast cancer 7 years ago was scary at times, but God told me I would survive and I knew if God said it, He meant it, and I believe it and that is that. We have many areas in our life today that we can not count on…but I know I can count on God with all my soul and all my heart.

This time of year for me is bittersweet as I lost my Dad in October and lost my Mom a year later in December. It doesn’t seem that long ago and yet it has been 16 years…the painful memories are softer now…but every year beginning in September, I begin to reflect on my life and the life around me, as I ponder the last year of our life here. Being a writer and a deep thinker, I process life circumstances deeply in my heart as I ask the hard questions and seek the truth of life events and how those events have effected me. After I ponder the last year in the innermost part of me, only then after I have come to some conclusion will my thoughts fall onto paper with sincere and sometimes crazy writers abandon. I ask lots of questions in order to wrap my understanding around whatever it is…but yeah…I seek the answers to life’s deepest, greatest and toughest questions. I know I will never know all the answers until I get to heaven someday, but I feel life deeply and think on things a long time…before I can give the answer to those questions.

As I am writing this afternoon, the light outside my window is full of golden softness as my world is filled with an amber glow, fall has truly fallen on Juniper Canyon. When I write I often look out on the land, watching the shadows of the clouds above, play on the landscape, making new odd shapes…and I remember old times, simple times and good memories. This week as I reflect more on memories of my parents, I can hear Dad’s voice in my head. One of the first times he was deathly ill, we called 911 for help…it was scary for all of us. I was very thankful we were not living in Wyoming, and instead lived next door allowing us to get there in a hurry if we were needed. Once Dad was stable and loaded into the ambulance on that clear blue sky morning, I sat with Dad while Mom and Bill got her jacket etc. for the ride to the hospital.

I noticed Dad was looking out and up the hill, and then he said “Have you and Bill decided if this ranch is home and is this where you will put down roots and grow old?” I was taken back with his direct question as my thoughts were not on Wild Bill and me…my thoughts were on Dad and Mom. I stuttered and stammered saying something like “Dad, I know this is home and yes we will put down our roots and build our life here.” He kept pondering his life and the landscape and said ” I sure hope I come back home again, as I will surely miss this place.” I hugged his neck and said to him “You will Dad, you will.” And he did many times, from several near death emergencies, over the next four years…his doctor told us “Your Dad is one tough cowboy.”

The crazy thing about our lives is that often we do not recognize the beginning of something great in our lives until the end of it. Growing up I lived on a vast cattle ranch, I did not understand that living on private land was a gift and a privilege of life. I thought everyone had a cattle ranch in the mountains and that we all owned land somewhere. I also thought everyone had a horse and lived the same life I lived! I had an active imagination growing up as I was taught that everything was possible if we believe…and today I still believe in the impossibilities of life:)

Learning to look at the glass half full instead of almost empty, was one of the simple truths of life my parents taught me…having a positive attitude instead of a bitter one has carried me through some tough times and still carries me today in my life, as I still have tough issues to deal with in our lives here.

Our lives are a gift to live with love, joy, hope and faith that tomorrow will come as it will. When one door closes and the season is over…you may feel a pang of sadness, but you know there is always hope for a new beginning and we will find it if we seek it out…as we will never give up! Beginnings and endings…sunrise and sunset…summer began and summer ended, as fall began. I felt a moment of grief for the warm days of harvest and the magical summers we live here and yet as soon as the moment passed, I saw the beauty of fall and I was at peace knowing this was the beginning of a new season that would be filled with wonder and home spun days of gold:)

I leave you with one of my favorite bible verses…it is so true as it is the heart of life!

A Time for Everything

 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

May You Have A Fantastic Fall Weekend And A Fabulous Frivolous Friday!