Personal Log 7.15.23 Seasons

This has been an extremely long week... taking care of my folks was never on my shortlist but here I am, taking care of them as they took care of me when I was younger. My dad is doing pretty well but he's slowing down; my mom had a pretty good week, she's moving around more & I have to be there to help walk her around her property & sometimes, around the house... taking care of her garden... making meals for her... when I look at my folks I see eternity in their faces & at times that scares me. There's a time & a season for everything & I'm definitely in a season right now.

My cousin David, who's around five years older, was admitted to hospice early this week in Ohio. His family has all flown in to say their goodbyes & yesterday we received a text that he may be in eternity sometime today. I was never close to him but I did love him. He was a pastor for many years so I know where he's going after this life but to be honest, it bothers me when some people are healed & others aren't, why some people live a long, long life & other's lives seem to be cut short, in this case due to cancer. I guess some questions are better left unanswered this side of Heaven.

So I caught an episode of the Andy Griffith Show recently, it was one of the ones where Andy & Barney double-dated. I thought, "That's something you just don't see that much anymore, couples going out w/ other couples & having fun". It just hit me funny; not funny ha ha, funny strange...

Getting back to taking care of my folks' property, it struck me that their property might be mine one day, whether that happens or not is up in the air but I'm taking care of it like it might just be my responsibility & if it's not, then the next owners will appreciate all the effort. 

There's this apple tree that my mom & I planted several years ago (20?) & once it matured, it did not produce fruit at all. Year after year it was barren, but my mom kept speaking life over it. Last year I was ready to dig it out of the ground and plant a new tree in it's place but I promised I'd wait one more year to see if it would produce apples. Well, this year it finally produced apples! It made me think that sometimes when you want to give up on people, especially people who've been saved & discipled for years but just haven't produced fruit, wait a little while longer & see what may happen. It was a life lesson for sure.

Lastly, this week I've been revisiting the mandolin that I've had for about a year now. After watching a couple more videos on setup, intonation & all that good stuff, I found that I'm fairly close to where I need to be in the "proper setup dept" though one day I would like to have it professionally done. I was never crazy about the 4 finger chords & the chords that are all over the place on the mandolin so I sat down & really looked the instrument & how I wanted to play it.

Being a guitar player for 35 years helped prepare me for this moment as I knew quite a bit about music theory & how chords are formed, so I approached it from a guitar player point of view & suddenly, everything became clear. My mandolin came alive as my 1 & 2 finger chord approach took over. Before, I was unsure about the mandolin & played it sporadically & un-enthusiastically but now, I'm really liking it. In a month or so I may be confident enough to play it for the entirety of the acoustic service, who knows?

So, that was this week in a nutshell & I guess it can be summed up in one word: seasons.