Ordinary Time

There’s this great Flannery O’Connor quote I love: “When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville.” In other words, no matter where you go, take your home with you. Be who you were when you were most at home.

“Good fires prevent bad ones,” the Georgia Forestry Commission website warns, and I know, deep down, it’s true, true in my life as well as in the life of the land. Sometimes things have to burn, but they don’t stay charred and burned forever. After every burn season, I watch as things come back more vibrant than they were before.

Life is hard, but our innocent infatuations make it less so. That thing you loved in childhood? That sport or book series or TV show or board game? It can bring you back to yourself, if only for a moment, and a moment might be just what you need.

“find a job you love, because if you don’t love it, you’ll make everyone else around you miserable.”