The Great Thing

The world is changed forever because you are in it.
It certainly doesn't feel that way at the moment. Is it laziness or overwork or summer heat that leaves me wishing I could just skip Monday and go straight to Saturday? Self discipline kicks in, and I pour another cup of coffee and get moving.
The calendar is not cooperating again because I see another month is marching past while I strive to accomplish that Great Thing which seems to elude me today.
Perhaps the Great Thing happened yesterday and I missed it. Perhaps it was that charming phone call with a loved one where I listened without judgment. Maybe it was the plants I trimmed in the front yard that made the front of our home more pleasing to our neighbor's eye— as John Keats said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
The world is changed forever because you are in it.

The heat is on!

Throughout the country, people are suffering through record-breaking, exceptional heat. Some days, when I walk from my air-conditioned car toward a store entrance, I feel as if I will melt into a puddle before I reach the door.  The sun is unrelenting and it is multiplied by asphalt.
I pause mid-stride. I just have to slow down. I can't move fast in this heat.
Perhaps slowing down is what we all need. Life speeds along, and we rush on to yet another task-filled day. People end up more stressed and less peaceful with the hectic pattern of modern life.
The heat forces me to take it down a notch. And that is not necessarily a bad thing.