Unexpectedly

Keith Green – Summer Snow 

Unexpectedly, you came back to see,
If I'd was waiting, like I promised long before.
Your shadow filled the room, the music changed its tune,
When I saw you, you were standing at the door.
Like summer snow, you were an unexpected sight.
A blazing sun, you were shining in the night,
When I really should have known, that youd be coming home.
I waited patiently, but I found it hard to see,
If you were coming, why was there such a long delay.
At times I thought you lied, or else you would have tried,
To let me know that you were coming home today.
Like summer snow, it falls around me in the cold.
I can hear the echoes, of the warnings I was told.
That I should know, that youd be coming home.
Like summer snow, you were an unexpected sight.
A blazing sun, you were shining in the night,
When I really should have known, that youd be coming home.
Unexpectedly, you came back to see...

Haunting, surprising, subtle, classy, unexpected. The Joy of Life. Need I say more?

Crowds

They finally made this 1874 (yes it's over 141 years old) novel that was first read as a serial story in a magazine before it was published, into a big budget movie for May distribution in the US. The story (to me, when I read it as a teenager) was like a soap opera.

The title also intrigued me. The story seemed so advanced (or relevant) about human nature. It's really about sex although there are no sex scenes. Power and money are all part of the equation as always. 3 men, 2 women where the strongest character was the woman (I think). The crowd goes through a lot of strife and drama before the genuine attraction surfaces. Because it was first published in a serial monthly read, Thomas Hardy successfully tries to entice the reader along the way. Very advanced. I think TV dramas try to do the same with multiple plot lines guiding people to the story climax. Like, I said, it's about sex.

For me, the yearning for intimate fulfillment in relationship is universal. Intimate implies private, not public. Yet society want us to display the most important relationships in ceremony. Somehow a crowd of people demands us to validate love. But love is by nature how we treat each other when we are alone, at home, at work, at dinner, even sports.... For even the most public celebrity is just a man or a woman who need to love and be loved, in private.

Those moments must be far from the madding crowd.

Change

Time flies. This song is nearly 20. And most people still resist change. Even those who crave it, often want something changed back to the way things used to be. If there is regret, we want to change the outcome by going back.

But real change is not about the past. The past needs to be erased, deleted, wiped clean so we can start over. We need to be free of the shackles and weight of our unforgiveness, our pain, our regret....

For me, the change was in waiting, which for an impatient guy, is excruciating. And I've been in financial, work, schedule doldrums for a long time. It was like waiting for nothing.

As change has come in the silence which was an awakening to the voice in my heart, in the sorrow which resurrected the joy in my soul, and the apparent lack of popularity which made me see the constant companionship of those who love me.... I see that someone has been waiting me at the end of my tunnel of doubt.

"They that wait on the Lord, will renew their strength, they will run and not get weary, they will walk and not faint." Who knew waiting was so difficult... but the strength I feel is real.