Thanks to an abundance of rain, cool weather, and overcast
skies the roadsides are blanketed with more color than I've ever seen before.
Daisy’s, sweet clover, Birdseye trefoil, wild roses, hawkweed, fireweed,
lupines in swaths or dancing together in the breeze. If you like walking, the
scent can be quite intoxicating. If you're allergic, best to view from inside a
car.
Perhaps it is all this beauty, or maybe just the fact that I've finally
finished the sequel to the Scent
of God, that prompts me to take a break from single-minded focus to finish
the book. Even as I fervidly worked on the manuscript and condensed each
chapter into a few sentences for an expanded table of contents, you hovered
behind the scenes, reminding me that I have a beautiful family, wonderful
friends, and lovely acquaintances with whom I haven’t connected in close to six
months.
It’s a paradox—humorous but sad—that as our lives grows
shorter, time keeps picking up speed. I am no longer young enough to think I
have a lot of living ahead of me. I’d like the sequel to be published while I'm
still around, not posthumously. I no longer multitask, or rush from one
activity to another. Now I view with mouth agape at all some people are able to
accomplish. I wonder if they've made a pact with their alter ego (perhaps they
have more than one) so that while one focuses on a single project, the other flits
about picking up the slack and dreaming up a zillion other things to accomplish
Now!
I've just returned from a ten-day silent retreat at St.
John’s Abbey in Collegeville that focused entirely on the now: living each
moment fully aware. Yet there is such a contradiction in the way we use that
word “Now.” Not in its meaning, but as western culture defines it: Do it now! Such pressure does not allow
for much awareness.
In answer to your many questions asking when the sequel to
the Scent of God will be available, all I can say is “I'm working on it.” Have
a blessed summer, one with just enough rain and heat to make it spectacular.
The
