I think it was Dajuan Mack who has described me clearest in the recent years. I think it was about a week after we met through our pastor after a discussion about theology or something that he said “it is like you’ve been here before.” My theology tells me that is not possible. I think in my learning to accept that my different thinking is not a slight in my value that the word may be urgency. I always hear the clock in my head ticking quicker and thus I have a painful acceptance of the brevity of life. Might be why I get so irritated by making minutia the priority.
As an adjunct professor I found you get discounts from time to time. I ran across this book from a publisher entitled 99 Things to Do between Here and Heaven (http://www.amazon.com/99-Things-between-Here-Heaven/dp/0664233244) by Kathleen Bostrom and Peter Graystone. It certainly has a catholic bent with some of the items but overall I think they are worth consideration. The title is fairly self-explanatory but the content format is impressive. Each topic has supporting questions and explanations: How to do it? What Should I expect? Do’s and Don’ts, What you should be thinking about (not thinking about) and Scriptures related to the event. Items include things like Watch the Sun Rise, Bake Bread, Bury a Time Capsule, Visit a nursing home and others. Some of which for some will be completely new. Many of these for myself will be things I have done but taking a look at them from another perspective.
I have a few things to do with the time I have left. Not a bucket list. I believe they are things that have intrinsic value to my journey and will help me grow up (because I definitely need to grow up.) I want to take my son on his first train trip (but I keep hesitating until I’m certain that he will remember it), learn latin, visit an Eastern Orthodox church, come up with an original thought good enough that would be people wasting their time to read in a book, and know with no equivocations that I have been used to make someone happy. In the meantime I will be using this book also.
Some brothers got a hold of it and apparently they have decided to join me. Our first on the list is “watch the Sun Rise” which we plan to do this Saturday November 12. Cloudy or not we will be gathering at about 6:30 A.M. at the walking bridge over 71 Hwy by Bannister Road.
Here are a few snippets from item 1. Watch the Sun Rise:
What Should I Expect? Reflect on the goodness of God the creator, who has made the plan both complex and beautiful. Thank God that the display is constant and commonplace, but also magnificent and full of wonder adjectives that could also describe God.
Don’t- be disappointed if an overcast sky means the colors are mainly gray
You are most likely to think: To have a God with the ability to create a world in which life is possible is wonderful
You are most likely not to think: “The display in front of me is the result of the diffraction of light through the haphazard weather as the planet turns on its axis in this godless universe.”
Hosea 6
1 “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”
QUESTIONS:
The date I saw the sun rise?
Where, and who else was there?
The Colors I saw?
What I will remember between here and heaven?
