May 2nd.

I drove the interstate to work today instead of the county roads. They were a little bit treacherous, and I was not all that adventurous today for some reason. This is a photo I took as I got off on the exit ramp. Melbs posted a photo on FB a while ago with a yard stick stuck in the snow up the 12 or 13 inch mark. He was not joking. It’s lovely. And I’m sarcastic. And I never did totally buy Al Gore’s brilliance on the global warming thing…at least not to the degree that he was trying to sell it.

So here we are on the second day of May and we’re a little buried in wet, heavy, snow. The trees and shrubs are doing this prostrate thing all over the place. [have you ever noticed how people seem to interchange the words "prostrate" and "prostate"? Just an observation...and I seem to easily digress.] The daffodils were just starting to push up through the mulch here. The buds were just starting to break open. And now we have regressed by weeks with our biggest snowstorm of the entire winter.

I am sitting at my desk at work, and so far everyone has either cancelled or not shown up for their appointments. And I don’t think I have anything of much substance to write here today. But the snowstorm has left me restless and a bit disoriented. Perhaps even a little more than a little disappointed, as I’ve been longing for spring for quite some time. Thus my trip south last week to the Iowa Arboretum where I snapped this daffodil shot. And I much prefer it over the snowy, slushy photo above…

“Don’t be deceived, my dear ones. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights; who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:16

So I know the snow will be gone in a few days, and spring will be back in full force. And the verse in James is a good reminder to me that whatever kind of craziness is going on around me, [even if it is just a late-spring snow storm], that goodness comes from the hand of God. Even if it is a foot of snow or hiding somewhere under that snow. Have a safe day, my midwesterner friends!

“Save the Theater” Event

Join us tonight for a “Save the Theater” event at the Forest City Cabin Coffee Company. They will be serving all your favorite Cabin beverages from 5-9PM. I will be playing, joined by a few of my talented friends, from 6-8PM. “Thirty-One Days” will also be available for sale and/or signing this evening. Come out and join in the fun for a great cause!

Longing for the sea…

Am re-reading a book I read a decade or so ago, and came across this verse of poetry quoted in one of the later chapters. It somehow caught my attention today, so I am going to type it out here, along with this photo of my son Jon and a friend sailing in Wisconsin. Not the sea, but in the open waters outside the safety of the bay where I sat with my camera…

I have studied many times

The marble which was chiseled for me -

A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.

In truth it pictures not my destination

But my life.

For love was offered me, and I shrank from its disillusionment,

Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid

Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.

Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life

And now I know that we must lift the sail

And catch the winds of destiny

Wherever they drive the boat.

To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness, 

But life without meaning is the torture

Of restlessness and vague desire -

It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

                              [Edgar Lee Masters]

 

 

living.really

“i am not convinced that your date of death is the date carved on your tombstone. most people die long before that. we start dying when we have nothing worth living for. and we don’t really start living until we find something worth dying for.”   -mark batterson

batterson’s words remind me today of the importance of paying attention to what it is we’re actually living for. what we see, and hold to in our lives that we feel is actually worth dying for. even if that dying is simply a dying to ourselves. putting something or someone in a place of more importance than our own interests or comforts or pleasures. investing in doing our lives in that way puts us in the mindset of living. really living.

hodgepodge

on the way back from harlan after celebrating thanksgiving and christmas with the mathiasen family, we stopped at a tree farm south of home and cut an eight-foot balsam, got it baled and tied on the roof of the jeep, and headed for forest city. it now stands quietly and fragrantly in the corner of the living room, strung with white lights and a host of ornaments from years past, most of which have some memory attached to them from their particular year of our lives. mare thinks it looks a little hodgepodge somehow. and i agree, but i also think it looks a little like how our lives have been. scattered with all kinds of experiences and situations, all kinds of people and moments. and it all adds up to the storyline of our lives. you who are reading this and many others have been and continue to be a part of that storyline. and as such, you help to add to the depth and richness of the hodge-podge of our lives.

for some reason, this hodgepodge style of storyline is how it plays out for us. people come in and our of our lives. sometimes for brief moments. sometimes for season after season. although hodgepodge is not always used as a positive descriptor, i think there is something deeper going on in our lives. something with more purpose and beauty than just a quick glance perceives.  i believe that God orchestrates it somehow…in some way. mare and i, jonathan and maggie, are grateful for the ways that you have added to the richness, the depth, the joy in our lives. and we wish you the most bless’d of Christmases this year. we wish you a new year full of adventures and new discoveries. discovering or rediscovering the Christ child, who once showed up in a stable outside of bethlehem. may you see see him in ever surprising places and ways in the coming days, in the coming year…
“What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive year after year in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the child who was born that day may yet be born again even in us and our own snowbound, snow-blind longing for him.”                                      – Frederick Buechner

IT’S READY!

I’ve been working on this project for the last seven weeks in every possible crack of time. And the people in my life that know I can have some tendencies toward perfectionism in some areas of my life have forced me to hit the send button. To send it to be published. Here’s a glimpse of it for you. It is ready! If you’re local I can get a copy or two in your hands, or if you’re from a distance, it might be more practical to go directly to http://www.blurb.com. It is available in three formats including soft cover, image-wrap hard cover, and hard cover with a dust jacket. Wait, it’s available in four formats. It is also an ebook that you can view on your iPad or iPhone in the Mac format.

THIRTY-ONE DAYS by scott n. mathiasen | Make Your Own Book

not deterred

i woke up a little before 5 this morning [at least i think i was awake] to see the legs of a huge spider around the edges of the bedroom window. there was just a hint of moonlight that showed this shadowy creature lurking out there. it looked to me like it was trying to get inside. to get at me. so i rolled over and pulled the blankets over my head. but i just couldn’t get back to sleep. so soon i was up and headed for the coffee pot and some ‘stoney creek blend’ from cabin coffee company.

with a mug of steaming coffee and cold feet up on the warm hearth, i flipped through photos from earlier in the fall to find this spider web i snapped in the window of a run-down shed along highway 9. there is a lot i want to get done today. things that i know will require some mental discipline. some focus. things that i have to work for. and i know there is a risk for me to get caught up in other things that rob me of productivity and purpose. so this web is a reminder of that for me today…a reminder to not let myself be caught in a place that prevents me from getting it done. and also, to not be deterred from going into places of solitude from which honest creativity happens. sometimes you just have to get past a web like this to get to the real stuff of life. don’t be deterred today…

“..but i press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…”    Philippians 3