I may have mentioned that make my living driving around and have done so for the last fifteen years. Yesterday, during my travels I was in northern Vermont and New Hampshire. It was an absolutely beautiful late summer day and I would have liked to have been able to stop and “smell the roses” for lack of a better term. But I couldn’t, I needed to do my job. However, I still took the time to thank God for the beautiful day and the beautiful country He has made.

Yesterday morning I received a call about one of my cousins who passed away. She was the second in the last few months. We weren’t close, in fact I probably hadn’t seen her in thirty years, but it reminded me how it is my generation’s turn to start moving on the the next life. I realize my time left here is probably less than the time I have been here. When I was driving and thinking about this, I think I appreciated the beauty a little more than normally. I realized God made all this and did a pretty good job at it. I could see Him in the beauty.

Every day I try to take the time to find God in the things and people around me. According to the “Ignatian Way”:

Ignatian spirituality is rooted in the conviction that God is active, personal, and­­—above all—present to us. We don’t have to withdraw from the world into a quiet place in order to find God. God’s footprints can be found everywhere—in our work and our relationships, in our family and friends, in our sorrows and joys, in the sublime beauty of nature and in the mundane details of our daily lives. It’s often said that Ignatian spirituality trains us to “find God in all things.” –  Ignatian Spirituality

We can find God in all things if we take the time to look. Just like we can hear what He is trying to say to us, through various ways He communicates to us. We only have to look and listen. Sometimes we have to look harder than others, and there are times when we may not see or hear anything. We might miss the message completely, or maybe it won’t hit us until a few days later. This is what normally is the case with me. In fact sometimes it may even take years. Such was the case with what I refer to as “The Door Story.” This refers to something that happened maybe 30 years ago, maybe longer. And now that I thin of it, it all began at the funeral of one of my uncles, the father of my cousin who just passed away. I may have written about this in the past, and I will write about it in the near future.

Life in this world is short. This is why I believe we need to prepare for the next one now, and I hope the next one will be in Heaven.