A DAY LIKE TODAY

My wife's back yard flower allows the rain to make it grow.

When reading a book, it is interesting to observe who the author quotes.

Last evening I was reading a book by Philip Yancey and noticed more than one reference to Frederick Buechner. I've seen Buechner quoted in other books, and assumed he was some guy that lived a few centuries ago in Europe. But when I punched in his name this morning, Wikipedia says he is 89 years old and living in New York. 

When reading a book, it is interesting to learn more about the author's life, since it provides understanding about what shaped their thoughts. Again, to Wikipedia, where I found this description of Buechner's childhood. 

During Buechner's early childhood the family moved frequently, as Buechner's father searched for work. "Virtually every year of my life until I was fourteen, I lived in a different place, had different people to take care of me, went to a different school. The only house that remained constant was the one where my maternal grandparents lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh. Apart from that one house on Woodland Road, home was not a place to me when I was a child. It was people." This changed in 1936, when Buechner's father committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, a result of his conviction that he had been a failure. 

Rick Warren says “The way you see your life shapes your life.” It seems like so many people today have allowed their circumstances (real or perceived, good or bad) to control how they are living. Here's how Frederick Buechner plans to live his life today.

"In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another day just like today, and there will never be another just like it again. Today is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious today is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all." — Frederick Buechner.