JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS


Today has just been one of those days.  You know the kind of day I'm talking about.  Some would call it a lazy day.  Others would call it a wasted day.  It has seemed all day that I just wanted to sit around and do nothing at all that accomplished anything.  I guess we could just call this a non-productive day.  I'm sure you've had these kind of days yourself.  First thing this morning I went to the computer to catch up on the news.   I then rode the stationary bike for about thirty minutes.  Then I ate breakfast.   I then watched a little TV.  Then back to the computer to just surf around.   All of a sudden, before you knew,  it was lunch time.  After lunch I went back to the TV and started watching a program called  "You Live In What?"  Not sure if you've ever seen this program or not but  it's a pretty interesting program.  The makers of the show go around the country showing different structures people have what we today call  "repurposed" and made into their homes.  The imagination of people never fails to amaze me.  I repurpose a lot of things myself.  My birdhouses are mainly built of "repurposed"  materials.  I have also started to use old rusty tin roofing to paint pictures on.  I guess you would call the tin I use a rusty canvas.  I have learned through doing this that you don't really have to have a lot of talent to paint something that someone will like enough to  buy.   You see,  I'm not a very good painter.  I tell Peggy the only reason I can figure why any body buys one of my paintings is because it reminds them of something their four year old grand child painted. 

Anyway as I was watching this program called,  "You Live In What?,  I got to thinking about repurposing things.  I thought about the elementary school I attended,  Kirkwood Elementary School.  The school was built around 1900, give or take a year, and has now been converted to loft apartments.  Same with Roosevelt High School in Atlanta.  Even the old library I went to as a child in Kirkwood is now a private residence.  There are so many of the old buildings in Atlanta that I grew up around that have been repurposed.  The Roxy Hotel,  The Briarcliff Hotel and even the old Sears  Roebuck on Ponce DE Leon is being "Repurposed".  I am glad that these building are being saved and "Repurposed."  I wish they had done this with a few others years ago.  Buildings like Terminal Station and The Kimball House to name a couple.  I wish there was more 'Repuposing" today.

When I ride through Atlanta today though,  I do get excited seeing old neighborhoods being saved by the young people moving in.  Neighborhoods like Kirkwood,  Grant  Park,  East Atlanta Village and Virginia Highlands.  Places like the Forth Ward,  Cabbage Town and West End.  I'm not so sure if the young folks don't understand the value of "Repurposing" much better than us in the older generation.

Maybe  "Repurposing" means a little more to me than it does to some of you.  You see,  in a couple of weeks I will celebrate the second anniversary of my open heart surgery.  What does  "Repurposing have to do with heart surgery you ask?  Well two years ago the Doctors sawed my breast bone in half.  They then  stopped my heart from beating and took it out of my chest.   They took veins from my legs and "Repurposed" them as veins in my heart in four different places.  They then took a  valve from a pig's heart and "Repurposed" it as a valve in my heart.  So I guess you could say because of  "Repurposing"  I'm alive today.

When you think about it,  all the stories I tell and all the things I write are "Repurposed" things I have heard and seen in my life.  In fact,  my life it's self was "Repurposed" when I accepted Christ as my Lord.  My "Purpose" in life changed.

So as I sit here thinking,  maybe this wasn't a lazy day or a wasted day.  Maybe it was just God's way of telling me to slow down,  to be still and to meditate on the past blessings  He has given to me.  As the saying goes    "God Is Good,  All The Time.

May your day be blessed also.