Notes to Self...and whoever's listening

As a child, I loved reading.  Little House on the Prairie and the Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke were my favorites.  I also loved Beverly Cleary books as a younger girl and the Sweet Valley High books in middle school. In high school, I didn't find a lot of time to read and didn't pick up many book recreationally until my twenties.  I would always look for Christian fiction, but quickly grew tired of the same old story.  Woman had a job, but is unfulfilled.  She meets a man, often one that is not interested in her or that she doesn't like.  Fast-forward after several chance encounters and several missteps and VOILA!, they fall in love.  Bleck.  That works for a Hallmark movie for me that I'm only required to invest less than 2 hours in.  But not for a book. Hours of time go into reading a book.  Sometimes just finding a book that looks interesting takes a lot of time.  That is, until I found the author Karen Kingsbury....

Lucas and I enjoyed seeing the leaves fluttering down from the trees this morning as I took him to school.  We at first wondered why they were all falling since the wind wasn’t blowing. We had a hard frost last night, though, and today it seems the leaves realized it was their time. The thing with leaves is they have been preparing for this.  They’ve known their host, the tree, was just a temporary one.  They’ve known they would only last a short time, months to be exact.  They’ve grown from tiny shoots, clung to its host during tornado season and scorching weather. But, they also knew they’d get one last moment to shine before they fell and they have been regaling us with their beautiful colors the past few weeks.  They’ve known their end was near and many began their quiet decent from their host today, joining their friends on the earth below.  Their usefulness and beauty have ended, but their lesson lives on. Change is inevitable.  Ecclesiastes ...