If the pace and the push, the noise and the crowds are getting to you, it’s time to stop the nonsense and find a place of solace to refresh your spirit. -CS

Welcome to Autumn:

Autumn is a second Spring and every leaf is a flower.  -Camus 

Autumn is really the best of the seasons; and I’m not sure that old age isn’t the best part of life. But of course, like autumn, it doesn’t last.  -Lewis

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.-Muir

A few days ago I walked along the edge of the lake and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves with each step I made. The acoustics of this season are different and all sounds, no matter how hushed, are as crisp as autumn air.-Sloane

Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun. If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time. If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well. Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done-a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own. If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift. -Lake

Fall is arriving here in Colorado and I’m curious as to what it holds.  Already the cool temperatures, slightly changing leaves, our first fire in the fire place.  I’ve begun the search for a place to pick pumpkins, drink apple cider, and go on a hay ride but it will be different this year.   Different in terms of location and company but the main components are still here.   Earlier sunsets, crisp, cool bed sheets, floating leaves and warm drinks. Jeans, sweaters, flipflops.  I am desperately looking forward to the visit by Schmanda.

My passion for women’s health and labor and delivery has not faded.  At all.  But I am in the thick of it, nearing the end of weeks where they have held my hand and taught me.  It’s been a challenging few months of orientation and training and I am, all at the same time, nervous, excited, startled and ready to be on my own.  It never ceases to be an exhilarating moment to end my day starving, thirsty, splattered in blood and reeling with the overwhelming emotion of, yet again, being a part of a family’s birth experience.  I’ve been through close calls, crash C-Sections, delivered dead babies, cried with moms when they felt inadequate and ready to quit, helped first time fathers learn to wrap and hold their babies, seen moms nearly bleed to death and witnessed a resident pass out during a surgery. (this happens to only be the beginning) 

And in the end it is life or death.  Happiness or sadness.  Exhilaration or complete emptiness.   Always the extremes that can be socially, emotionally, physically, biologically, gastrointestinally,  (etc., so on) exhausting.   

But once again, I find myself thankful that these trials teach me more clearly who I am not.  As a nurse, a wife, a friend, a human, a soul.  From there I can pick up the pieces to move on with who I am and what I have to offer.  Grow into it.  These steps are fundamental. And necessary. Humbling and, in the end, even comforting.  (I wish I always loved getting there as much as being there.)

 But the nights I go home with a creaky soul, I’m tempted to live out my days with a warm drink, reading a manual on the sunset.  And the Holy Spirit.

Learning to imagine them both more beautiful and near that I am inclined.  

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We’re enjoying Hallie’s new life and the joy she has brought to our home.   Her clumsiness and playfulness.  

 

“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.”-Thomas Merton

Our feature on the United Planet website about our work in Peru this past summer:

Here

…and she has arrived…