A gift in losing something, finding something, making something
I used to get so miffed when I couldn't find something I needed...my car keys, sunglasses, an ingredient for a recipe I was sure I had...you know the routine, but I could get myself so worked up about it and fling into a good old rant about how someone must have stolen it...etc. etc. Sheesh...I look back on it now and think that was such a waste of time. There really can be a gift in the lost and found of life...
1. There is nothing like being in a rush in the morning and not being able to find the thing you need to walk out the door with...keys, phone, glasses, lunch....today it was my purse. I knew I had left it on the kitchen counter the night before but it was none of the usual places I stash it when my honey quips at me to 'get that sack out of here before I throw it out'. He's always nagging me that my purse is left lying around all the time and never in an 'out of the way' place. I was looking for it this morning and muttering under my breath about my husband likely hiding it on me to 'teach me a lesson' and then I paused and remembered 9/11. Yes, the September 11, 2001 when tragedy hit America in the form of terrorism. What does that have to do with my missing purse you ask? Well, I always wonder how many people that morning couldn't find their keys, or their car wouldn't start, or their child made a fuss at the daycare, or their train was late...the few minutes they lost in the searching, or being frustrated, or calming or waiting may very well have saved their life in the end. It always makes me think how no occurance is a coincidence and nothing is outside of God's knowledge or understanding. So I meandered around another couple of minutes this morning asking God to bring to mind where my purse might be when He wanted me to find it....and I did find it...sitting on a chair tucked under the kitchen table. And then I thanked him for the delay and walked out the door feeling quite certain that I was right on time. It's a gift to feel secure.
2. This may be stretching it a bit, but I found a sweet memory today...the school I work in, is under renovations and part of the new layout is the conversion of our old school (literally) gym into a learning commons (that's the new name for library by the way). We have a large high school sized gym left attached to our building from a private school that used to be in the building and our old library is being converted to classrooms...we're growing. When I looked in the new learning commons I saw the new set of risers in the midst of being carpeted and in behind them is 'the pit' in which will be a ton of pillows and a perfect place to hide-a-way with a good book. Oh I loved my library in elementary school....I was a book fiend and almost to the point of being anti-social I read everything in sight in my grade school years...I began reading at 3 1/2 years old and was onto early chapter books by kindergarten. It was a fantasy world, out of myself and I could go ANYWHERE...I looked at those carpeted risers and it brought me back to Penbrooke Meadows School and sitting on the risers there with pillows while the librarian read us The Hobbit...I was lost in Middle Earth in rapture...and I was eight years old...it was such a sweet found memory it brought tears to my eyes....as it is right now while I type this. A sweet gift.
3. I feel I make things every day...I write often... I love it; the weaving of words into story, fictional or real. In the past couple of days, a new project is coming to light, burgeoning if you will into my conscience and I have a cautionary excitement about it. I've decided to pursue it and I began 'making' it tonight. When I craft a writing project I map it out...literally...on paper with pencils and markers, building character sketches, plot lines, etc....I am a busy woman, I truly have little time for this that takes a large bit of time. And really writing is a very solitary art especially for me as I am a very social relational person. But when the ideas flow there is no stopping them...I think they come from outside of me, and truthfully it is a gift to be a part of it. And really I have the midnight to 4am shift wide open...what else would I do with it? Sleep? Pfft...
I'm finding the gifts are everywhere...it's just about opening our eyes to look. Joy, indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment