Some things never change...

Our sweet Talouse cat back in Georgia

We're living in the middle of unfamiliar and “different” these days. And “different” is slowly becoming the new familiar. So, this past month i committed to making note of things that have not changed – the things that can feel “just like home” if i'll let them. In the beginning i believed i would find little to journal about. But...

For fun, next month i plan to journal on the “unfamiliar and different”.

This month, however, has proven to be an exercise in “comfort”.

Here are 36 simple things ----- that have not changed ---- neither geography nor culture has altered them an ounce... and i'm so very thankful.

• the way flowers bud and bloom
• the smell of fresh plowed dirt
• the way birds bathe in puddles of water
• the way white clouds float in blue skies
• weeds grow in gardens – even though no one planted them
• the way water falls
• the way hurt people cry
• the way happy children bounce when they walk
• the smell of cut grass
• the way people sit down
• the way birds build nests and feed their baby chicks
• the way death comes...
• the way birds perch in trees and watch the world below them
• the itch of bug bites
• the way babies want their mothers... and the way good mothers respond
• the way it sounds when paper is crumpled
• the way selfishness poisons everything, even the one at the center of it
• the way it feels under a shade tree on a hot day
• dust --- it's everywhere (but it may be different colors in different parts of the world)
• the feel of clean water on dirty skin
• sleep
• the way rain slows everything above ground but waters everything beneath
• God's Bible – it says the same thing... no matter where it is
• the way it smells after rain
• the way a real smile comforts a lonely heart
• the way wind moves tall grass
• the elusive line between “too much” and “not enough” --- (contentment with what we have)
• the way bruises prove something hit too hard (but bruises are harder to see on dark skin)
• the way a leaf falls to the ground
• the fact that birds sing so much more than people and people waste too much time talking
• the darkness of loneliness
• the way it feels to be authentically loved --- when nothing is expected in return
• the sound of thunder and lightening in the sky and rain on windows
• the smell of puppies
• the moo of cows and the way they move so slowly (back home it was in a pasture, here it's more often on the road)
• the way cats act, whether they weigh 5 pounds or 500
  
  

  

  Taken last week in Nakuru.

  
  
  
  
  "I am the same as you in God’s sight;
      I too am a piece of clay." Job 33:6
  
  
  “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building." Luke 17:28
  
  
  "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work." 1 Corinthians 12:5-6
  
  
   "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8
  
  
  
  
  ©2013 Donna Taylor/Reaching for the Robe