1985

I've gone through phases in my life when I indulged in random, specific, niche-like, passionate interests.

One summer, I collected pictures of a longed-for red TR7. One fall, I read every book I could about Beryl Markham. One spring, I attended every Grand Prix Puissance event that was held. After getting my driver's licence, I would drive with my best friend to late-night horse auctions to scheme about saving a horse from becoming glue. The year that my siblings and I entered into "Mom-world," I began to sketch cartoons about what was happening as a way to find humor in the tragedy.

Many of these random interests, it seems, have come back to help me make sense of life. Just a bit later than I thought.

At hospice the other day, a man shared with me some poems he wrote in 1985. He didn't know then why he wrote them. While we sat by his dying family member, he realized why *then* he had that random, passionate muse who helped him write every day. It was because *now* he could turn them into hymns to be sung at his family member's memorial service. His nephew would sing them.

I think that in these 'long time ago' anecdotal interests, our passions link us to something that is going on in our life right now, in this moment. Or niche-interests that I have now might be useful or helpful in the future.

I continue to be amazed at how God connects these passions and our lived in a way that brings healing and hope.

Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. - 1 Cor 13:12

What is in your moment now, from "way back when"?