Reflect is such a nice word; really, it is a tremendous word with more than one meaning. It is what I do when I look back and think about something that has happened. It also means to mirror an image.
Carol and I were talking the other day (via email) about how quickly the weeks ago. It’s Monday, we turn around, and it’s Friday. When I reach the weekend, I wonder what happened to those five days? Reflecting on this week, the best time was that spent with Matt and Dawn, Sara and Nathan, and Dawn’s parents who are visiting. And then, a surprise and way too brief visit with Tracy and Carlene. Of course, there was the cozy critique and the neat time of discussing reading and writing with Peg and Helen.
In between these moments, I wrote quite a bit, advancing Moonlight Can Be Murder with Nettie crossing a few more hurdles and encountering, not answers to the mystery, but more questions. Believe it or not, in a cozy mystery, that’s progress.
The Christian periodical sent it’s go-ahead to continue with this new assignment. (They approved the list of topics and storylines I sent them.) And, through my window on the world, I’ve watched the grass grow greener, forsythia start to bloom, and my neighbor’s tree start to blossom. Someone said it is a purple magnolia tree. I don’t know. The only magnolias I’m acquainted with have waxy, hard green leaves and aromatic white flowers. This tree puts forth purple blooms long before any leaves appear.
The sky over NW Arkansas grew dark and stormy yesterday and last night. Lightning flashed, thunder echoed, and it was a great spring storm. As my camera caught the reflection of trees on my wet deck, I thought about how my experiences and impressions are reflected in what I think, say, do, and write. And, I wonder if anything I have said or done or written is reflected in the lives of others.
I remember perching on the edge of a table one day in my kindergarten room, talking to a parent of one of my students. The mom smiled and motioned for me to look at her little girl, my kindergartener. That little one had perched on a near-by table, legs crossed, hand on her chin, reflecting the actions of her teacher–me. That was funny but also humbling. Now that’s an instance where I reflect on a reflection!! Teachers, parents, grandparents, see ourselves, our ideas, and our character reflected in the lives of youngsters.
The most important attribute any of us can reflect is the love of God for His creation. If others see caring and affection, forgiveness and understanding, a willingness to share burdens and solve problems, why then, isn’t that what we’re put on earth to do– worship God by showing a reflection (however dim) of our Creator? I wonder, as I reflect on this past week, if I have done that?
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