Do Trees Make The Wind Blow?

The trees in this area are currently ablaze in all their deciduous glory. I can't help but to stare up at the reds and oranges, maroons and crisp yellows set dynamically against the clear blue sky.

Something else has caught my attention and, unfortunately, I must depart the wonder of this pumpkin-scented autumn to question the mountains of mulch.

Every tree in my pristine suburbia is laced at the ground with a fluffy bed of cypress mulch. The dark brown circles each tree in a shadowy circumference like the dot of an exclamation point. It's not just the delicate, non-native trees that are blanketed in the smelly shreds of former forest flesh. It is also the mighty oaks, hickories and maples indigenous to the naturally beautiful terrain. Nature now pushed behind the boundaries of this plastic paradise.

How did this happen? Has this practice been D.I.Y.ed into normalcy?

Cypress mulch is stinky, using it depletes natural cypress forests turning them into wastelands and it is usually covered in non-native fungi that spot the leaves of the very trees it supposedly protects. Then, mulch-lovers have to re-pile again next season.

I'm not an activist, nor do I have a personal vendetta against mulch. It's just that when I was a kid trees simply grew out of the ground. I just wondered if they still can.

Redemption

Imagine a cute little squirrel with big, round eyes and a fluffy tail. She's a girl squirrel, so give her pretty eyelashes, too. Now watch the squirrel hop into a barrel of acorns. She eats and eats until the proverbial barrel is empty. There she sits sad and remorseful at the bottom of her empty barrel. What does she do, but look up from the darkness to the light of the bright, blue sky.

Yep, I'm the squirrel and my redemption story is a classic tale. God allowed me in my gluttonous zeal to consume every last ounce of self-fulfillment until the barrel of my life was empty. Then, in His kindness, God did not give me anymore ME. Instead He gave me mercy. He called me and I looked up to the Light.

I surrendered and He redeemed me!

Are you depleted yet?

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

Moving Wasn't Normal Then

I love to make lists. I find lists fun to make and comforting when completed. I was thinking today of all the moving my family did while I was growing up. Sometimes we lived in a town for a year and a half, sometimes six weeks. Realizing that I attended 14 different schools before college, not including two years of homeschooling, I thought making a list of my moving adventures would be a challenge.

Let's see...
Born in St. Joseph, Missouri then...
Tucson, Arizona...
Cypress, California...
Tucson, Arizona...
Maryville, Missouri (a farmhouse near there anyway)...
Phoenix, Arizona...
Tucson, Arizona... (two houses)
Topeka, Kansas... (two houses)
Maryville, Missouri...
St. Joseph, Missouri...
Port Neches, Texas...
Clovis, New Mexico...
Lafayette, Louisiana... (two houses)
Paducah, Kentucky...
Houma, Louisiana...
Hendersonville, Tennessee...

Then, I chose to spend a year as an exchange student to Australia. After two more long-term stays in Australia, I've made 12 moves as an adult, but in the same general area, so that's not as fun to list.

The best part of moving as a kid was by far setting up my new room. The best part about moving as an adult is by far setting up my new place. I love where I'm at now and prefer to never move again. Maybe I'll just rearrange the furniture when the newness wears off!

I Am Not Sure Why I Have A Blog

I've clicked on the links to so many of my friends' blogs over the years and checked out a picture of their baby or wedding or band or mission trip, but read little else and forgot the link.

I've tried facebook and hated it for enough reasons to warrant a separate article.

I love to write when I believe no one will read it. I always keep journals. (A journal is a bound book of paper made from a tree. I'll explain what a letter is at another time.)

So, I'm not sure why I have a blog. That's what I typed in when it ask for my title. Now, I'll go journal about how I wasted an hour setting up a blog. Good Night.