Lovely October

I love October! I love it's promise of the change of seasons and the gold and reds and yellows. I love that the sunlight becomes dappled and even though we can't burn leaves here anymore I remember the haunting smell of watching my grandmother burn leaves in the fall and standing in the  crisp air while she held her shovel and we would talk as we watched them burn. October to me is filled with all things good. Maybe it is that my first baby was born in October and from that first moment I held her in my arms my life changed for the best. It is also my husbands birthday and he is the other part of my life that gives me the joy of life.

I read this selection the other day from my devotional Streams in the Desert. I love it and it always speaks to me and how I percieve life so I would like to share it today.
" Paganini, the great violinist, came out before his audience one day and made the discovery just as they ended their applause that there was something wrong with his violin. He looked at it a second then saw that it was not his famous and valuable one.
He felt paralyzed for a moment, then turned to his audience and told them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain thinking that it was still where he had left it, but discovered that someone had stolen his and left that old second hand one in its place He remained back of the curtain a moment, then came out before his audience and said:

" Ladies and Gentlemen: I will show you that the music is not in the instrument, but in the soul." And he played as he had never played before; and out of that second hand instrument the music poured forth until the audience was enraptured with enthusiasm and the applause almost lifted the ceiling off the building, because the man had revealed to them that music was not in the machine but in his own soul."

" It is your mission, tested and tried one, to walk out on the stage of this world and reveal to all earth and heaven that the music is not in the conditions, not in the things, not in externals, but the music of life is in your own soul."

So on this beautiful October day, I am thankful that within my soul sings a melody that no matter what happens, I know that " All things work together for good to those who love God , to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

"Faith already knows that everything that happens fits into a pattern for good to those who love God. An inconvenience is always, whether we see it or not, a blessed inconvenience."
(from a Path Through Suffering, p. 59)

My son said the other day that if I had chose  not to have children, I could have lived free of heartache and pain. It was a bit before I could answer because of the lump in my throat. Finally, as the tears rolled down my face I said, " What ever bit of discomfort I may be feeling now, does not ever touch the joy in my life that I have been given, nor the laughter that has filled my days. We all experience hard things but it is those things that give us pain that gives us joy when it is all past." I know that I can look past where I am today into a glorius new beginning that is just around the corner. Because of the music that lives in my soul.

Have a lovely golden October day,
~Kim~