“Let us so live, that we may impress our age, and leave our footprints on the sands of time.” – Charles Spurgeon

“If you would like to leave footprints in the sands of time, you had better wear work shoes.” – Herbert V. Prochnow

Tuesday evening, working in the kitchen getting stuff together to fix dinner (lamb chops, by the way), I glanced outside to see the sky turning all sorts of gorgeous colors.

The view across our neighbor’s parking area is not the most picturesque, so I walked out front instead to see if I could capture the tapestry of light in the sky over our house. I am learning to love the unique architecture of this street and the way our neighborhood breathes in and out with the life and rhythm of the historic district where we live.

Then later, walking Max with the still large moon peeking through the undressed winter branches in the churchyard, feeling the mystery of the history and the weight of all the untold stories hidden beneath the dirt.

People can live in all sorts of places with new homes, and amenities, and sidewalks that don’t try to trip you, and churches with parking lots instead of graveyards, and houses that don’t creak when you look at them or harbor ghosts in the attic – but what we have here is the rich patina of history that runs deep, and color and character and not just ancestors but pedigree.

And as we look into the unfolding of this new year I wonder about what stories we will learn, what our story will become – and even what part of this living history will have our memory etched into the stone of time?

History may be our context, and the future our promise – but today is where we are invited to live and, always, the most consequential opportunity we will ever engage– DEREK