Maine and Birthdays

This year for my birthday I ventured to my favorite state, Maine.  I got to explore the coast and walk on rocks with the ocean splashing and spraying all around me.  It is amazing what the body remembers.  The smell of the beach with the seaweed strewn kindled in me walks on Rye Beach, New Hampshire as the sun set with a musician standing on the rocks playing Amazing Grace on bagpipes.  My feet jumped out of my shoes so that they could mold themselves around the granite that met the sea with boldness.  My hair whipped by the wind and my face dusted with the foggy mist as I faced the ocean and surrendered to the mighty power of God.  Within these moments the images of past trips and people merged with the present.  I traveled with 3 women, creating new memories.  It was familiar places, new faces, and a new understanding about the communion of saints.

One of the most interesting aspects of this trip was the mixing of past and present in each moment.  Each taste, each smell, each step, each sight, each touch was this wonderful combination of a new experience that had layers of past experiences.  I knew then that those whom I love are with me always whether they have gone before me to a heavenly shore or live across the country.  It was not only past and present combined, I also imagined the ones I would bring in the future.  There in that place, past, present, and future were one.  The communion of saints, all those I love present in the moment.  God so clear, so real.  I can smell the salt and hear the voices singing praise to the one who created the beauty before me, within me, and all around me.  So this morning I offer just a glimpse of a gift given to me on my birthday, a gift of love that began long before I was formed in my mother's womb and will continue into eternity when I am on that heavenly shore walking barefoot with my Lord and Savior.

Allow joy, allow love, allow God,
One of Many