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Having to wear a long-sleeved shirt out on our deck along with our coffees in the upcoming fall and winter mornings makes me “happy as a clam!”

Adding a little pine-cone and pine branches in our little chimnea for a few hours runs off with the smoke, hopefully also taking away some bees and mosquitoes.

The aroma is captivating and reminds me of all the campfires and indoor fires we’ve had through the years, penetrating so naturally as a heater like no other.

We love fireplaces, fire bowls and chimneas! We have a Franklin Stove in our living room, awaiting some cooler weather.

My brothers and I were raised with fireplaces. Our dad, uncles and grandfather were bricklayers who built beautiful fireplaces in homes and patios in California.

A big fireplace in our patio had colorful rock and even one with a fossil on the face and hearth. Our dad was creative and hand-picked stones for custom contracts.

I loved watching him figure blueprints for jobs, load his truck and drive off with his cement mixer in tow.

I got to help him doctor his cut, bruised hands from using his cutting, shaping hammers. I was so proud of his strong arms and hands and work ethic, even obvious to me, as a little girl. He was cool!

It’s kind of nice growing up and having my first revelation of what is cool be having a dad like him and twp big brothers who were cool because they played sports with me, took me everywhere with them and protected me as we played at school and in our neighborhood.

I was involved in some rough games, sometimes with lots of kids, mostly boys. I loved every minute of it, even when the baseball hit me in the face.

As I got older, seeing what other people thought was cool wasn’t to me. My idea of being cool involved someone with integrity, smart, talented and passionate about their gifts, respectful and funny.

When I met my husband, Mike, at a music rehearsal and began dating, he filled those qualities that I was raised with. We are still in love after 60 years and made and make a lot of music together, three beautiful children, three grands and four great grands, and led thousands of people to Jesus!

In James 5:20, one version says that if you bring a person back or newly introduced to God, you have saved their soul from hell, and you are a cool spirit.

So, enjoy the cool, fall and winter days and be a cool spirit and get some people saved.

 

Kathie Deasy writes about religion for Port Arthur Newsmedia. She can be reached at kathiedeasy@hotmail.com.