life is beautiful

i am sitting outside, it's warm, there is a breeze and the only thing that keeps running through my head is.... life is beautiful. what should be running through my head is the list of things i need to do before i graduate, before i head off to the far east, before blah blah blah, you get the drift. so why is life beautiful?

well some people believe that nature cannot be observed in the city. it's too loud, too polluted, too many people, it is just downright busy BUT i believe otherwise. sure i cannot see all the tiny lights god has so eloquently placed in the night sky like i can when i am down on the farm with little or no light pollution nor can i sit back and hear nothing but wind through the trees like i can when i am deep in the woods BUT in the city there is nature to be found. nature in the squirrels trying to nest in the numbered trees, nature in the tulips blossoming in the 5 ft x 5ft "front yards" of my neighbores and nature in the people i encounter everyday. if you consider nature to be the product of god's handy work, nature is EVERYWHERE.

An encounter...today in a cab i was talking with a man from sierra leone. a man who is studying civil engineering and driving a cab to support his academic endeavor. on the surface we have nothing in common. i am this little privileged white girl from a dairy farm and he is this strong black man from a society i cannot even begin to truly comprehend. sure i can watch the movies and read the books on africa but can i really, i mean, really understand what it is like to be from a culture where violence and poverty are true realities in everyday living... no, i don't believe i can. anyways, back to the story. so i am talking with this man and come to find out he used to live in fort wayne. (crazy, huh?) i tell him i am a hoosier and where my family lives (about an hour south of goshen). his deep brown, nearly black, eyes light up. "goshen", he says, "hmmmm.... i almost went there for school. those mennonites give a lot of money to africans." i smile, nod and tell him that is where i went to school. the conversation continues and he talks about his hopes and dreams of returning to sierre lione to build roads, bridges and help his country repair from recent devastation. while he was talking i was in awe. i kept thinking to myself, here is a man who due to his vocation is probably rarely valued other than the "thanks for the ride" yet a man who has a plan to do fantastic things for the betterment of all. and honestly, how many of us can truly say that?

i don't know my taxi cab driver's name but i he will stick with me as i strive to do something worthwhile with my life. and that my friends is nature, it's god's handy work played out "city style".

joy in beauty!
blessings...