Random Thoughts of Amy Potts

Ask most people in the upper mid-west how they feel about winter and they will say they hate it.  When you ask them why they don't move south the response is usually because they enjoy the changing of the seasons.  In the north the changing of seasons can often be dramatic.  One day you are adjusting the air conditioning and the next the fireplace must be lit. One day you are wearing short sleeves and the next a sweatshirt.  In fact sometimes this can happen all in a days time.  Heater by morning and air conditioning by night.  That is how it is in the mid-west and that is what I love about it.  I love dramatic weather changes.  I love thunderstorms in summer and blizzards in winter.  I love a warm spring rain and I love the fragrance of autumn and the crunching of leaves under foot.  I love the change of seasons as they pertain to nature. There is only one season I don't really enjoy and that is the middle of summer when the heat and hu...

"Sometimes I wanna go, where everybody knows my name".  Everyone remembers the theme song from the hit television series, "Cheers".  Right now you are probably at least humming this tune in your head, possibly singing it out loud.  Sometimes that is where I want to be. I want to be in the presence of my friends and family to laugh and to hear about their lives. On a hectic day when my job is overwhelming and I am mentally exhausted I need a refuge.  I need a place where maybe nobody knows my name.  I need to be alone.  On days like this I will often drive to my church to play the piano in a dark sanctuary where nobody but me hears my prayers.  I begin to play whatever comes to mind.  Most of the time it is music that just flows from within, to my hands on the keys.  It resonates from the strings what my pastor referred to once as, "piano prayers".  I had never really thought of it that way before.  But when I think about the emot...

I had been a widow for nearly nine years and decided that I didn't want to be alone for the rest of my life.  I had a lot of love to give and I wanted to share it with someone who not only needed it, but wanted it and would not take it for granted.  I spent a lot of time at a sanctuary on the edge of town that I called "Serenity Hills".  I would go there and walk with my dog and at some point lie down in the tall grass to listen to the wind.  It was there that I would imagine who my husband would be.  I often took my journal with me to write thoughts as they came to mind and I would pray.  One day while I was lying there I began to pray for my "husband".  I wasn't dating anybody and I didn't even know any single men at the time. But I wanted to be sure that I was ready and that when the time came that I would not throw what love I had inside to someone who wasn't deserving.  I wanted to know that what love I had left would not be taken for granted...

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or if you have known me for very long at all, one thing you know for sure is that I love winter!  As long as I can remember I have loved winter.  I have fond memories of snow forts and sledding.  I had dreams of becoming a figure skater or an olympic skier.  Having grown up in rural Iowa, it wasn't likely that I would become either. Through the years people have said that as I get older I will come to hate winter just like the rest of the world.  I haven't found that to be true.  If anything, my fondness for the snow and bone chilling cold only grows stronger with time. Why winter?  Why not spring, or fall or the warm summer sun? Why am I drawn to the coldest, bleakest time of year?  Would you consider seeing life through winter eyes?  It is my winter eyes that help me to see more than a simple changing of nature's seasons. I have had experiences that have taken me full circle in what I have come...

My pastor ended her sermon today with the words; "May you be present and not somewhere else.  May you be found in Christ."  I listened with intent to her words today for many reasons. She encouraged us to look for joy in what we have and to be thankful for this moment.  I like to think that I do this well, but I often find myself living with the "what if" and "I should have" mentality.  This has always been difficult for me and I suspect that I am not alone. I am known to be a positive, upbeat woman who is rarely if ever down or depressed.  Honestly, I do view life differently than some who have experienced similar struggles and have known less heartache.  But I am also a woman who has real hurts, real disappointments and there are times when resilience seems less present.  But why were the pastor's words so meaningful today? This past week our pastor said goodbye to her mom who had been fighting cancer for some time.  As she approached the pu...

I've been reflecting lately on the origin of my faith in God and it seems that unlike some, I'm unable to really pinpoint a day or time when I had that "aha" moment.  All I know is that at a very young age I would listen to the voices of the meadowlark and the red-winged blackbird; curious to know what made them sing.  I believe that God's voice in the wind called me away from the angry voices of people to come out and  dance with the little stream on the edge of town. It was God who called me to safety then and it is He who calls me to a deeper place today.  It was God and it is God. I went away to a monastery recently to reflect on this faith and some things occurred to me.  For many years I worshiped in an evangelical setting.  I don't know how many times a congregation would rejoice when they learned that someone had come out of "Catholicism" to the true Christian experience.  So many times I would hear pastors refer to the "other" d...

Every year I get frustrated with the argument of whether or not retailers should say, "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays".  Every year I am perplexed at the number of people who stay up all night just to get the best bargain for Christmas.  Call me a cynic, but I don't think I recognize Christmas anymore.  Or do I? I did some in depth research on the subject of Christmas.  Well, not really, but I did launch a Google search.  I clicked on the first link I found which was, History.com and this is what I learned; "Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenonmenon.  For two nillennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature."   Hmm that's interesting.  So, Christmas is religious, cultural and commercial all wrapped up in one neat package.  Brilliant! So what's the big deal if the checker at Macy's or any other ...