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“I Only Do It Once” – Famous Last Words

I only do it once, but that’s not going to happen this year.

I only do it once - famous last words

I was away for the first four days of the week. And when I returned home there was a beautiful blanket of leaves covering my front lawn. 

It’s that time of year when the leaves on our maple tree turn amazing shades of yellow and orange. It’s also the time when those said leaves start to fall off the tree. 

It was a beautiful sight seeing those leaves when we got home. But I knew I needed to get them into a bag while they were still lying peacefully in one place.

My neighbours would appreciate me cleaning up my leaves so that they don’t have to. Not that they would clean up my lawn for me, but when the wind starts blowing, I lose ownership of those leaves. 

Though they came from my tree, they become the property of my neighbours when they get blown by the wind into their shrubs and back yards. 

… In some ways, the best thing I could do for myself is leave them alone. If I left the leaves long enough, I wouldn’t have any to pick up. 

That thinking, however, wouldn’t make me all that popular on the street. So this afternoon I have to get moving and warm up my leaf blower.

What I use is actually a leaf “mulcher” but that, apparently, is not a word so you just have to picture what I do.

The machine has a wide scoop of a nozzle that sucks up the leaves. They then pass through a series of blades and end up in a bag which collects the fragmented leaves.

Usually I clean up my leaves on one day, just once a year. But this year the front yard is covered and I can’t ignore them, even though there are still plenty more on the tree that I’ll have to deal with another day.

Right now there are so many leaves on the ground that I could gather them up into a high enough pile that I could jump into them.

… I’m not going to do that. You can picture me doing it if you want to, but I’m not going to make up a word for it either. 

Today there is no wind. I’m sure my neighbours are hoping I will take advantage of the stillness to save them from cleaning up after my tree droppings. 

There are a number of things I only like to do once, like swapping out my summer tires for winter ones, or switching out golf clubs for hockey sticks in the truck of my car. 

Another one of those one-and-done things for me is gathering up the leaves off my lawn. It should be a once-a-season chore only. 

But this year, this year it’s going to be a two-day affair for me. 

Here’s the thing: Jesus came to earth, lived, then died for the sins of everyone. It was a one time sacrifice, a one time act. You would think that everyone would eagerly, willingly and immediately get in on Jesus’ sacrifice and all at once the world would be saved. But not everyone is ready to get in on this forgiveness of their sins. Thankfully, God is patient and, although we should immediately receive Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, God waits for us to be ready. It should be once and done, but our patient God delays Jesus’ return for us. My advice: don’t test His patience. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to do right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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All The Leaves Are …. Almost Gone

I looked out the window this morning and the leaves on our big maple tree are almost gone. Our tree looks like a guy who’s lost most of his hair, except for a ring of it just above his ears.

all the leaves are ..... almost gone

I watched for a few moments and more leaves gently floated to the ground, sometimes after a little gust of wind. But there were other times when there seemed to be nothing plucking the leaves off their branches; they just came off anyway.

By my estimate there will be no leaves on the tree by this time tomorrow. 

Watching the leaves reminded me of a song and I started to sing the first line. It’s an old song by the Mama’s and Papa’s called, “California Dreamin’”.  

The line goes, “all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey”. … The sky right now is actually blue and the sun is shining, but the leaves are brown and yellow. 

The song talks about a winter’s day. I only wish that the weather would still be like this in winter. 

But here where I am it’s only fall and the leaves are brown and already off the trees … which brought me to another thought: I need to collect those leaves. 

This might be a great day to do it with the sun shining, the leaves lying still on the ground, all naturally piled up for me.

Sometimes cleaning up leaves is like herding cats. The wind keeps blowing them around and every time you think you have them in a nice pile a wind gust scatters a few of them.

That is not the case today. 

The leaves are dry, there is no wind to bring life to them and they are neatly piled. “Neatly” is a relative term because how neat can a pile of old dead leaves really be?

This afternoon when I bring out my leaf mulcher, I’m pretty sure the leaves that are still on the tree will try to stay on a little longer to avoid being shredded like their fallen brothers.

It won’t matter. Soon they will all be gone, sucked up by the mulcher or blown over to the neighbour’s yard. And I will be longing for spring to come instead of the cold winter we are facing – all too soon for my liking.

That’s what the song California Dreamin’ is all about – wishing to be in a warm climate rather than a frosty one. 

But I’m not worried about that quite yet because the weather man is calling for double digit temperatures next week. There may not be any leaves on my tree or any left on the ground, but at least I won’t have to sing, “been for a walk on a winter’s day”.

It will be in January and February when I am California Dreamin’.

Here’s the thing: There are times when you know what is coming, like when you see the leaves fall off the trees. It’s a sign of where we are heading. Right now there are signs all around us of where the world is heading. It might be soon, but on the other hand it may take a while. Still the signs are there, calling for us to do something. You can either prepare now for what is coming or you can be unprepared and only dream of what could have been. One day this world will come to a critical point and Christ will return. I urge you to be ready for that now. Don’t be left wishing for something you can’t have. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you see coming that you could prepare for now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Hit Trees; I Don’t Hug Them

I had a run-in with a tree the other day. It didn’t work out so well for me.

It was dusk when I went for a ride on the trails. I guess my depth perception was not quite on spec with the low lighting.

I cut a corner kind of tight and my shoulder clipped a tree as I went by. I think I only polished the bark of the tree, but it gave me a nice-sized raspberry.

It almost, but not quite, knocked me off my bike. It did send me on a collision course with another tree. Fortunately, I kept my balance and narrowly avoided the tree on the other side of the trail.

It’s not the first time I’ve been stopped by a tree while riding trails on my mountain bike.

There was one time when I came around a corner, and a recent storm had caused a large tree branch to hang over the trail at about shoulder height.

Well, I caught that tree with the upper part of my left arm and it kicked me right off the back of my bike. It was like I had hit the ejector button on my seat.

This time I think I misjudged the tree because I couldn’t see the trail as well as I needed to. I had some glasses on that go clear when there is little light, but I think they may have been slightly fogged up.

At any rate, soon after my incident with the tree, I took my glasses off and could see the trail and obstacles a lot better.

If this had happened years ago, that tree would have been thinner and maybe it wouldn’t have been so close to the trail. If I had hit it when it was young, it would have moved with my impact and provided a little give.

But now that tree was solid; it never even budged. It almost seemed like it was leaning in towards the trail just a little … like it was waiting for me to come by just to give me a shot.

I’m not blaming the tree; it’s not like it tripped me up. I was the one steering my bike. I take full responsibility for pointing my wheel too close and leaning in a little too early.

But I tell you, I went from traveling at about 12 km per hour to about 2, in one second.

It was like those crash tests that they do with automobiles. The auto manufacturers do it to test air bags and the car’s crash engineering. They put a dummy inside a vehicle and then they drive the vehicle into a brick wall.

In my case, I was the dummy.

I wasn’t trying to prove anything, but I now know how those dummies feel, that’s for sure.

Here’s the thing: We can be going along in life and rather quickly run into some kind of trial that stops us instantly. How you respond to that trial is important. You need to improve your eyesight, take assessment of the situation, and then put your focus on the trail ahead. Often on a trail we can’t see very far ahead, so rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Seek Him regularly and often to stay on the path and avoid further obstacles along the way.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What obstacles have knocked you back lately and how are you responding? Leave your comments below.