Your eyes are closed. Yet a kaleidoscope of red, white and yellows is clearly in your vision.  Add the heat of sunshine on your face and even if only for a moment there is a feeling of pleasure that runs from your face to the tips of your fingers and toes!  Many of us have been under constant storms and warnings these past few days so enjoying this moment on my front porch this morning was welcome relief.  Gratefully I can say we were not affected, but my heart goes out to those who have suffered damage, destruction, and even death these past few days.  We have family and friends dealing with clean up due to flooding.  It seems to me that it is a season for us to be careful about taking anything for granted. I just finished an international bestselling book called “Winter Bloom” by Tara Heavey.  This fictional book tells a story of strangers coming to know one another as they work together to revive a community garden.  The story has caused me to inspect this orbit I am rotating on every day and consider who am I intersecting with and what do I really know about them?

During this reflective time I discovered working together was the key.  Not the nine to five co-workers, but rather the ones who have joined me or I them to make a difference in life.  Ones I have shared suffering, hurts and tragedies with.  Ones I have prepared for and shared celebrations with.  Ones I have trusted to love me unconditionally and not had to worry about what they might think about me if they knew…….  Yesterday I began reading a new book- “God’s Guest List” by Debbie Macomber, another bestselling author.  The premise is that maybe there are many people God has put in our path for a purpose, but we dismissed them as someone we wouldn’t care to interact with.  Formerly Planet Carol would have dwelt on the past and what could have been.  Instead I am going to take time to listen to everyone who crosses my path today and consider the possibilities of what we might work together to accomplish that will truly be meaningful in life. In the process we may actually get to know each other.   There is no question what I discover and what I share will surprise me- the answer is will I be willing to step out of myself and choose this adventure.  If I do then the pleasure in life I felt in the sun this morning just may increase and be experienced in unexpected places……………..