Sometime last year I saw some tv thing that honored Billie Jean King in some manner… what impressed me though was a comment to her:

“You have lived your live with purpose and passion”

WOW!!  While I think that to live very moment of every day with “purpose and passion” would be nothing short of exhausting - to live mostly that way - that is an admirable goal.   It is living with “purpose and passion” that I aspire to myself.  Dear Lord - let me be a fool for love - for you, for the love of a man, for a dear friend, for my dog or cat, for my work and for the simple beauty in my life - let me be a passionate and purposeful lover of life. 

From the bureau of meterology:

“Clouds have their origins in the water that covers 70 per cent of the earth’s surface. Millions of tons of water vapor are evaporated into the air daily from oceans, lakes and rivers, and by transpiration from trees, crops and other plant life.”

“As this moist air rises it encounters lower pressures, expands as a result, and in doing so becomes cooler. As the air cools it can hold less water vapor and eventually will become saturated. It is from this point that some of the water vapor will condense into tiny water droplets to form cloud (about one million cloud droplets are contained in one rain-drop). Thus, whenever clouds appear they provide visual evidence of the presence of water in the atmosphere.”

So…visual evidence of the presence of water in the atmosphere below:

Blessed are you who laugh now, because you can bring joy to others.  But blessed are you only if you laugh at yourselves, if you don’t take yourselves too seriously, if human living doesn’t revolve around you and your needs.  Only if you can take delight in all of the Father’s creation – in sun and surf, in snow and star, in blue marlin and in robin redbreast, in Cezanne, Olivia Newton-John and veal scaloppini, in the love of a man or woman, and in the presence of the living God within you.  Only if your laughter means that you have let go in reckless confidence all that shackles you to yesterday, imprisons you in your own small self today and frightens you with the uncertainty of tomorrow.   

Above is mostly Brennan Manning with a little editing by me…  Laughter, though - intoxicating, stress reducing -  laughing lightens our spirit, bonds us with those we laugh with, allows us to see another side to a situation.  It must be pretty important - how often do we describe someone we care about with “he makes me laugh!”.  From giggling to a good belly laugh - powerful stuff! 

I think the key words above are “if you can take delight in…”  When we are filled with delight the worries that can seem so important fade away -  Hope is intensified and all things seem possible.  C.S. Lewis wrote “Joy is the serious business of heaven”.  I believe laughter - taking delight in - it is the path to joy.  We were made to laugh and to laugh together.

Garden demolition continues with heavy equipment!

Mike gives me a quick lesson in Backhoe - the front half…