Thom and I are renting a cottage at the beach until the end of September.  Sounds wonderful, right?  But I’m torn.  Yes, it’s still sizzling hot back home in our desert community, but once September hits things start to kick off.  Although not officially the beginning of the “desert season,” once school starts more and more activities pop up on the calendar. Traffic picks up, meetups get scheduled, and friends start calling with plans.  So even while I’m loving the cooler weather at the beach, part of me is anticipating seeing those friends and getting involved in social and volunteer events back home.

When I think about it, that tension between what I have and what I’m possibly missing is something that happens to me/us all the time in one form or another. It’s similar to the oxymoron of celebrating life in one moment and yet feeling pain or sadness at the same moment.  Or how about feeling optimistically excited, and yet somewhat anxious about what’s ahead?   And probably the biggest one, feeling grateful and happy while recognizing deep in our heart that there are huge challenges going on all around us.  How do we handle those paradoxes, and where do we go from there? [Read more…]