Life is like. . .

While driving home from Curves this morning, listening to Mendelssohn on the radio, I drew the conclusion that life is not so much like a box of chocolates (sorry, Forrest Gump) as it is like a concerto.  The introduction peaks your interest and after that, just like life, the pace varies with tempo intervals ranging from adagio to presto.  Sometimes the anticipation can be intense, leaving us anxiously wondering what will happen next.  Here, however, the parallel ends since unlike a recorded concerto that we can replay whenever we want, life is a live performance and cannot be rewound.  For sure, though, what you can always count on with both Mendelssohn and life are those few spectacular measures (moments) of things beautiful beyond description -- like the sunbeams that came bursting through the fog laden leafy trees this morning as I reached the top of the hill.  Radio or not, I still would have heard a symphony!   

She comes sailing on the wind. . .

I am so in love with French Woods community, friends and neighbors! God bless the Boy Scouts and all who gathered for the raising of the flag at the church cemetery yesterday in memory of soldiers no longer with us. There were prayers to open and close, there were readings and meaningful words and there was singing. There were tear-filled eyes and comforting hugs. There were smiles. From my vantage point I noticed that I could see flag bearing graves from several generations and I marveled at the wondrousness that, in death, there are no generational divisions. I thought about another warm day, before we knew Bob was ill, when a young soldier on leave came to see Bob and they talked John Deere tractors. I hugged that young man that day and said, "Thank you"...all of us innocent of what would unfold in just a few short months and how our journeys would intermingle once again. I thought about how meaningful these ceremonies would be to Bob and how, in a way, he is part of them having selected his spot near the flagpole. And...in my human-ness, something else dawned on me. As my eyes happened upon my own name and birth year, I couldn't help but realize, "Oh, my gosh! Now everybody knows how old I am!" With that, I had to smile, giving thanks once again that not only God has a sense of humor but He has graced us with one, also.

It was a hot and humid bright sunny day with the sweet smell of open fields lingering in the soft breeze. Regardless of season or weather, that breeze is always there surrounding this little country church, easing its way through cracks in the walls and whispering echoes of lifetimes through the evergreens in the cemetery outside. I believe there is a powerful dwelling of the Holy Spirit in that place. These song lyrics come to mind: "...after dawn returned in flame of rising sun, the Spirit touched the earth again, again her wings unfurled, bringing life in wind and fire as she flew on. She comes sailing on the wind, her wings flashing in the sun; on a journey just begun, she flies on."

Looking up. . .

Pentecost Sunday...Fire...Wind...Spirit.  The choir will be in red today.

Things are looking up.  Mechanically, electronically and appliance-wise, that is.  A new battery seems to have solved all the problems with the car.  The GPS (independant from the car) seems to have resolved its own problems and is reliably guiding me around once again.  The lawn mower is 'purring like a kitten.'  The furnace factor turned out to be just my own stupidity.  (Please don't ask.)  After my doing some random tapping and shoving, the dehumidifier is again sucking up moisture like nobody's business!  I'm really enjoying the new microwave which is smaller.  A new dryer will be delivered on Wednesday. 

"This, too, shall pass" is really true!  Aren't I glad I didn't have a "poor spell" over all this small stuff?

Until the next batch......  

It's always an adventure. . .

I've just come in from outside where I have been gazing at the last embers of my first bonfire of the season, although I did get a head start one night last week at Dan's. I like to have a fire going while I'm working in the yard so I can sit by it to wind down after the work is finished. The quiet time is restful and pensive.  I am always amazed by the free flowing thoughts that cavort in and out of my mind and how they reflect my journey.  Of course, the memory floodgates are wide open and that is always bittersweet but for the most part, what I feel is gratitude. Time was when I never could have imagined such quiet; our house and yard so still.  How glad I am that 'something' told me to cherish all that long-ago family noise even when it seemed hectic to the point of exhaustion and my patience wore thin.

Tonight, sitting by the fire, I was comparing today with last Saturday and remembering some of the thoughts I was having then. It was a similarly beautiful warm and sunny day and I was pitifully lost in some of North Carolina's rolling, rural country roads...alone, with a malfunctioning GPS and a phone that was about to lose power.  No maps...just the printed directions I kept on my lap while I was driving. I was doing fine until the route numbers merged, then the one I was following divided into two directions, or so it seemed. To make a long story short, let me just say that what was to be a three hour trip took six hours because of all the back tracking I had to do!  I was so exasperated and tired that, after while, I almost lost my composure.  I knew it was time to pull over, take a deep breath and say a prayer.  With that, familiar coping mechanisms began to reveal themselves and I began to focus less on the fact that I had a problem and more on what my options were to find a solution.  The first option, of course, was attitude since that is something I could control immediately.  A positive attitude really does lighten any burden.  I thought about all the beautiful countryside I had seen so far that I might have otherwise missed.  I remembered that God doesn’t make mistakes – that we are always exactly where we are supposed to be even when we don’t think so.  I even smiled as I remembered; too, how one of my kids used to say, “Whenever we go with you, Mom, it’s always an adventure.”  I thought, “Yes, that’s it, I’m having an adventure.”   Aside from the fact that the extra legs of this journey were cutting into time with my family,  why shouldn’t I have an adventure, I wondered?  What difference did it make whether I was here or there?  If I were home, I’d be happily working in the yard but why not have an adventure instead?  I can always do yardwork.  Looking at my predicament in this way helped me relax and even chuckle at myself a little bit. 

Today, I smiled a lot as I worked happily in the yard with visions of last Saturday’s adventure now added to my journey’s memories.         

       

 

When it rains, it pours. . .

Great...
raining + wet laundry = need new dryer
Wish I had known that yesterday when I was in Binghamton.  I guess this is more of the "small stuff" ... like the lawn mower (running again), the microwave (replaced) and the car (still getting repairs). 

All will be well......putting all that aside and heading out to chapel.

God is good.

Later...
Okay, now the furnace isn't working.  I think I'm out of fuel.  =^(
I guess I'll deal with that *after* I take my wet laundry to Cindy's to borrow her dryer, using her car that I'm borrowing because mine won't start.
And...after that, I need to figure out why my dehumidifier won't work.

But...I am still smiling as I repeat, "this is just more small stuff" and "God is good."

NC Thursday May 17th. . .

12:15pm. . .

Ever so slowly I am beginning to be able to navigate around the Hope Mills area without getting lost.  (Thanks to Google Maps, my GPS, Allen's hand drawn diagrams, and my personal guides - Ian and Daniel.)  Fine timing...now that it's just about time to head back to Kannapolis.  That's okay.  I'll consider it a head start for the next time.  When I was in the grocery store earlier, I got so engrossed with the familiar activity of filling my cart with items on my list that I forgot, momentarily, where I was and that I still had to find my way back home...using a different route than the way I got there.  Here I am, however, all tucked back in and overly full of the leftover spaghetti I ate for lunch. 

I enjoy the scenic rural atmosphere of the immediate areas where both Jenn & Allen and Dan & Michelle live.  Except for lack of mountains, it reminds me a lot of home with all the farm equipment and fields.  In the Food Lion parking lot this morning, I even saw an open trailer with two calves in it, munching on their hay.  I'm not sure if I've ever even seen that in Hancock.  Or maybe they use trailers there that are enclosed and I just don't notice what's in them.  Either way, the visual gives me a tendency to avoid veal.   

NC Monday May 14th. . .

7:30am. . .Oh, ye of little sleep -- that's me.  I don't know why.  It's certainly not for lack of being comfortable on the brand new bed.  Nor do I have any of the particular sort of worries that tend to interfere with sleep.  I guess my mind is just working overtime about too many different things, as seems to happen quite often, regardless of where I am. 

The week end was enjoyably memorable with part of it very relaxed and low key and part of it not so much.  There was shopping and Daniel's indoor soccer game on Saturday, and church and Cracker Barrel on Sunday.  Then, perhaps not as enjoyable but no less memorable, there were the various incidences that took place involving lost (and eventually found) items...then, keys and phone getting locked inside a car at a gas station...as well as being locked outside the house -- a very tense situation which required climbing a ladder to a second story window that was (thankfully) unlocked.  I always wonder, when the obstacles are that obvious, what the lesson is and why the answers aren't equally obvious.  Even when I can't figure out the answer, I never doubt but what there is one and I am inspired more than ever to pursue my ongoing conversation with God.  Quite often, when I am further down the road in my journey, the answers are revealed...and I am all the wiser for having encountered the bumps along the way.  Tonight, I look forward to Ian's orchestra concert and I'm pretty sure we will all be double checking the keys in our hands as we leave the house.