100

There are about 100 things going on right now, it seems.

There is this to do and that to do. This and that. This and that. If you say it over and over again, it becomes like a beat in your head that you can't get out. It becomes monotonous, said beat. A buzz in your ear as you go from activity to activity. It can even get to be a ringing that you would give your right arm to silence. At night when you are going to sleep, you promise you could handle this all if you could just get a break. This and that. This and that. The cycle just needs a break.

Or maybe, yes maybe, my hearing needs a little retuning.

Perhaps the ringing could move more in the direction of a hum. The silence less shrill. Movement less frantic. Possibly even melodic. This and that, this and that. Background music. Its persistence does not harbor the availability of perspective.

Yes, in the middle of this and that, perspective helps. It carries the beat.

So, without really knowing it, we went looking for some perspective today, Sarah and I. In the middle of nowhere we found what we weren't really looking for. And the 100's of things? Almost, for the time being at least, irrelevant. This is and that, a faded melody to which we took to frolicking around a barn or 8.

Frolicking and photo snapping. Found out today that it's what Sarah and I do best. The 100 things stayed in the car as we tuned our ears to the wind and the creeks and the bugs and the gravel beneath our wandering feet.

100. Psalm.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

This and that sounding like a broken record? Dust it off, pop that sucker back in, and dance a little. So I guess now I have one hundred and one things going on. But I don't think I could handle the 100 without the one.