Save It for Later

“Of all human activities, man’s listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.” – Pope Paul VI

Last week, I came home from a great workout at the gym. My son came out of his room to see me, and asked why the carpet was wet. Of course, I went into a panic. I looked under the house in the crawlspace, and then I looked in the attic. I discovered that the water was coming from the hot water heater. I climbed up to see where the water was coming from, and I found that it was the connection pipe from the waterline to the tank. We had to shut the water off for the whole house to prevent damage to the whole house. I took the day off the next day to clean it up, and my dad helped me fix it. At the time, it was easy to see how this situation could have been the worst. If the hot water itself was leaking, it would have had to been replaced. We had a lot of water come in to the main floor, but I was able to clean it up that day. Looking back, it wasn’t that bad in the end. I have plenty of PTO stockpiled at work to take the day, and now it’s fixed. If I had labeled the moment at the time, it would have been negative. This is a situation that I can say is better now.

When I captured these photos while on vacation last year, my family and I had just been through a stressful situation before we left for this trip. My church every year has us pick a word for the year that will define my spiritual walk for that year. I let that situation determine what my word would be. Looking back, I realize that was not the word for me this year. Thinking back to this sunrise that I witnessed on New Year’s Day was showing what my word should actually have been. My word/phrase should have been new beginnings. The sunrise marks the beginning of the day, and with that comes new opportunities. I captured this sunrise while the family and I were cruising around the Caribbean last Christmas. I woke up early on New Years ‘s Day, so I headed to back of the ship to capture the most amazing sunrise I had ever seen.