Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXXIII

Have you ever jumped out of an airplane just for fun?  Do you ever do any parasailing?  Have you ever gone on a real African Safari?  How many times have you gone rafting down the Colorado River?  Well, I've never actually done any of those things, although I can say I've had my share of fun.  (I've done some rafting, just not on the Colorado.)  No doubt many of you have experienced at least one of the activities I mentioned, and there's a remote chance that there may be a few lucky souls who have done all of them, but even if you have, how do you spend the majority of your time?  It's not likely that any of you can say you do any of those things on a daily basis.  So, I guess my question is, would you say that much of your life is pretty dull? Angie and I often laugh about how predictable we are and how we act just like old people. That's fine, though, because we have the freedom to do whatever we want, and that's just what we're doing.  So what if we seem to be living in a rut...it's a rut of our own choosing.  When I first started writing this article, it didn't occur to me that it is being written for publication on Friday, July 12, 2013, which happens to be my 62nd birthday, so maybe I have an excuse for being habitual. It doesn't bother me if my life seems routine, or maybe even a little mundane, because my predictability is really what you love about me anyway....and your routines are what people love about you. Let me explain. This past Fathers Day as I was reading some of the posts on Facebook that my friends were writing in honor of their dads, I especially enjoyed one by Greg Bailey as he was listing the things that he knew his dad would be doing that morning, simply because it was what he does every Sunday morning...loving God and serving others...and Greg loves that about his dad. My mom went to Heaven six years ago, but my fondest memories of her are when we were just sitting on her porch, talking.  How many funerals have you attended when the pastor would point out a certain pew and say, "There will be an empty spot on the end of that pew, because that's where he always sat?"  I recall a friend telling me one day that she and her mom were cleaning out some rooms in her mom's house, and they came across some old clothes and hats that had belonged to her dad who had died eight years earlier, and she could still smell her dad's scent in his items.  She said just being able to smell him again brought back so many pleasant memories. As you pause to remember your loved ones who have passed on, do you mostly recall their "earth shaking" moments?  Chances are, what you remember most are their everyday activities. After all, it's those everyday routines that really describe who we are.  So...I'm not gonna worry if it seems like I'm in a rut. It's a rut I want to be in, and besides, that's what you're gonna miss about me when I'm gone. Preston Sent from my iPad=