Fal l

Photo Cred: Scot Hubert
http://giveandtakepictures.com/

I love, love, love fall!!! As summer is ending, and fairly quickly, I am actually looking forward to the fall! I love the leafs, the landscapes transformation from a sea of green to a mosaic of oranges, reds, and yellows! Fall is like me, it likes bright colors, all mixed in! No need to coordinate or to balance! Best part of it is that it pulls it off magically !

Again I love fall, but the cool afternoon breeze always brings interesting memories back, bitter/sweet ones. It reminds me of hope, love, new beginnings, friends, and many other good things but it also reminds me of lost, heartbreak, distrust, shattered dreams, false hope...

It’s hard to think that all those feelings are tied to the cool afternoon breeze. It would be so easy to just remember the dreadful parts, cry over the people who hurt me, over those actions that just weren't right. It’s easy to remember the good times that lead to the heart break with hateful and remorseful emotions.

This year am I choosing to see those good times that made that letdown even harder with endearing eyes. Feel what I felt at that time, not getting ahead of myself to see the end of the story. Enjoy the conversations we had, laugh at the jokes we made and remember that glimpse of time where things were exactly like I wanted them to be. Enjoy those times not thinking about the end, or the present reality .

This fall lets us think about those times that made us happy, with those people who heighten the experience and made them so amazing, regardless of the current state of our relationship. Let’s remember them as if we are there, not skipping to the end. That letter that was given to you, that song that was dedicated, that bench in the park, that road you walked on hand in hand.

I feel the fall is a season of renewal, finding new life, looking at the same things with a new appreciation. Bringing new color to the same thing you have been looking at all year…then letting it go .

Let the fall renew you this year, forgive those who hurt you, but first remember the good times, the orange and yellow times and THEN let them go…

But the greatest of these is love...

I believe the emotion with the most power is love. Love is what drives us. It affects most, if not all, our decisions. From simple things as what to put on in the morning, to more complicated ones like who we are going to marry. I always think of love as a positive thing, and it usually is, how ever love can make us do crazy things.

There's a song that goes “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of”. There is too little sweet love but there is enough love in the world, the problem is what is being loved.

I think all wars have been and will be driven by love. Let me explain myself by using the movie Troy as an example. We can clearly see Paris's love for Helen, it was so strong that he started a war for her. Agamemnon love for glory and power was just as strong or stronger than Paris's love for Helen. Achilles love for fame and glory drove him to the beaches of a foreign country to fight for a king he hated. Hectors love for his brother was what kept him from turning the boat around and returning Helen when he found her in the boat knowing that this would result in a war.

War is driven by love...of money, of power, of revenge, of possessions, of territory, fame...glory. I don't think the world is lacking love, I think the world is loving the wrong things. What the world needs now IS love, love of justice, of mercy, forgiveness, compassion...love for the other.

You see love, pure true love, is selfless... It doesn't want or need anything. It doesn't want money, revenge or fame, it just wants to give. A book I love is The Giving Tree, is a great example of love. There once was a tree and she had a boy, and she loved that boy. All she wanted was to make that boy happy. She played with him, fed and cared for him, never expecting anything back. She gave until she couldn't give any more even thought the boy could care less. The boy leaves and only comes back to ask her for things. The tree loved him so much, despite his absence for years that she gives him what she can; first her apples, then her branches and last her trunk. At the end of the book the boy comes back as an old man and the tree, now a stump, is sad, not because he took her apples, her branches, and trunk but because she had nothing left to give, in her eyes she was useless. However the boy just wants a place to sit and she proudly straightens up as asked the boy to sit one her, happy she can once again take care of the needs of her beloved boy...she never ask for anything in return. All she wanted to do is care for the boy. That's love.

I must admit I'm not very fund of the boy in this book. The boy, like the tree, is full of love...just not for the tree. He loved money, possessions, and leisure and fully knowing that the tree loved him he took advantage of her love. I think the reason I dislike the boy so much is because at times I see myself in him, loving things that benefit me not caring who I hurt or who I take advantage of to get it.

We forget what love is...

1 Corinthians 13

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

My fathers Writing

I can see my fathers writing all over the house. Its usually on a scrap piece of paper, an unopened piece of junk mail, on a receipt, an index card, even on an old shoe...its everywhere. I even saw it on his stirring wheel, he wrote "ojo" on it. Ojo literally means eye, but what it really means is to keep an eye on the road, pay attention, and not rush, he wrote it there after rushing and almost hitting something. When I open his bible I can see all of his notes, always on a scrap piece of paper, of course.

I can recognize my fathers writing anywhere I see it. Its very unique. I have tried to reproduce it and have failed miserably. My fathers writing is hard to read to tell you the truth. It seems like a secret code that only he can crack, it seems to hold all his secrets and passions. Since he discovered how valuable a computer and technology is he has decided that all his notes must be typed, just one problem, he can't really type, so he gives it to me....

The other day he decided he wanted to conquer the computer, he has conquered poverty, hunger, possessed people, storms, enemies, a new country with new customs, culture and way of life...how big of a challenge could a computer be...well it takes him some good 15 seconds to find the letter 'a' on the keyboard. When I see him trying it makes my eyes watery.

The thing is I appreciate my fathers efforts so much. He has had to do so many sacrifices so that we won't have to. And although it takes him 15 seconds per letter and like 5 minutes for a sentence, I assure you that his one 5 minute sentence has far more knowledge then my one 30 second sentence.

The reason why my fathers writing is so hard to read is because his writing looks like that of a third grader. That's because he only has a third grade education. His family couldn't afford more than that, he had to work to help his family. However this fact has not slowed my father down. My father is well traveled and has a growing church in the United States, something a poor man from Dominican Republic with a third grade education would never dream of.

You see that's what makes him so amazing, my father has never let his circumstances define him....he has always left that up to his dreams.