Life Lessons

I love reading!  My bookshelves at home and at school are fairly bursting with books of all lengths.  My  I especially love children's books with their simple words and profound messages.

One of my favorite authors is Cynthia Rylant.  She has an gift for capturing the poignancy of life in a short book.   Today I opened her picture book Scarecrow and I realized the message in it was for me today.

The book chronicles the life of a scarecrow.  Although he is made of borrowed things, he doesn't dwell on the transient nature of his life.  Instead, he rejoices in the beauty that is all around him all the time.  Rylant writes:

"...and though the scarecrow knows that he can as quickly be turned back in to straw and buttons as he was turned into a man, he doesn't care.  He has been with the owls in the evening and the rabbits at dawn.  He has watched a spider work for hours making a web like lace.  He has seen the sun tremble and the moon lie still.The scarecrow doesn't care what he is made of or how long he might last, for he has been a witness to life.  The earth has rained and snowed and blossomed and wilted and yellowed and greened and vined itself all around him."

I am transient by nature, a creature made of dust.  I can as quickly be returned to dust as I was given breath.  Scarecrow reminded me that it doesn't matter how long I might last, or how long the ones I love will be here with me.  What matters is how I live the life I have now, and how I embrace what I have while it is still mine.




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