Summer's Winding Down

Spent quite a bit of time today thinking about, handling some correspondence for, preparing for, and then participating in a 90-minute conference call about the Stone-Campbell Dialogue that will meet in Abilene the first weekend of October.
The Dialogue meets each year to foster unity by bringing together folks from Christian churches/churches of Christ, a cappella churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ for a couple days of talk, mutual sharing, and worship. I've attended it for several years and became the coordinator for the 4C's churches at least a couple of years ago.
It's always an enjoyable time; I've appreciated friends I've made in the process. It's always a fair amount of work to gather attendees and plan or help facilitate a program. And I always wonder if it's really worth it--could the same amount of time, energy, and money accomplish more for the sake of Christian unity? I dunno.
As usual, every evening I watered plants outside, and although several of them are still beautiful, some of them just seem tired of blooming, growing, and trying to be spectacular. (Could it be that I'm just tired of watering, weeding, and killing bugs?) There's a parallel here to life in general, I think, but I'll have to save the teasing out of the analogy for another day.
As I said yesterday, I took a bunch of pictures in the garden Saturday, and the pictures of the individual plants are prettier than the yard in general. Here's another of those shots; I want to post all of them, maybe tonight, on Facebook.

I was finished with the yard and packing my lunch by 8:00, so I decided to sit on the deck and read awhile. I had to quit by 8:30, because it was getting dark. Not too dark to be outside, but too dark to read. The days are getting shorter; summer's winding down.

Now for something I said I was going to do every day but haven't kept up.

Quote of the Day:
I cannot remember in my lifetime when there has been so much foaming blind hatred and mindless rage going on in the world, America, and even my state (Missouri) as there is right now. We need genuine peacemakers, not religious terrorists, race baiters, and political opportunists.
—Victor Knowles II on Facebook today.