View from the Deck

For the past few weeks, just about everyday, I have found myself drawn to sit out on the back deck of my house.  There is not a particularly majestic view from back there (I have posted a couple of pictures below):

And really the view thing is kind of a non-issue, because I don't really come out to sit back there until after dark anyway.  In this particular season, it has become my favorite place to sit and talk with God.  The weather is at a comfortable place where it's not still a million degrees at night with nasty humidity, and yet it's also not cold and bitter so as to be unpleasant.  It is quiet and peaceful, the house far enough from busy streets that the main sounds are wind in the trees, bugs in the bushes, and that's about it.  Especially at night, there is a pretty clear view of the stars in the sky.  It is a location that lends quite a bit of perspective.  Nothing around me is in a constant state of motion; everything is pretty much quietly being.  The stars (of which there are quite a few, in case anyone hasn't  had the chance to really look at them in a while) are varying degrees of brightness, fixed in space at untold distance from where I am.  Deafeningly loud, and yet eerily silent everything about my surroundings says, "it's really not all about you", and I need to be reminded of that these days.  In my tendency to wonder what I am supposed to be doing, how things are affecting me, what I ought to be working on or worrying about, the view from the deck yields quite a different perspective, and lends itself to some neat conversations with my Lord.  Not that He doesn't tell me what I am supposed to be doing, etc., but certainly in conversing He reminds me it really is all about HIM.  I find I get more rest and rejuvenation from 20 minutes in the dark outside than 8 solid hours in my bed--and certainly a lot more wisdom!  Even as I write this, part of me really can't wait 'til the sun goes down.