Monday, March 23, 2020

We Don't Learn Anything in Drizzle

A couple of months ago while working on a Sunday School lesson I came across a quote that grabbed my attention. We were having a lesson from Psalm 84 taking a break from the regular Sunday School lessons whose theme about 95% of the time was on idolatry and rebellion. At the time it just seemed like a good idea to take a break and look into the psalmist longing for the house of God. Not only longing for the house of God but gaining strength from the journey. I don't remember where I found this quote but here it is, "We learn nothing in drizzle but we can learn life lessons from storms." Guess this comes to mind because this morning is a light rain, drizzle kind of day. From experience we know we are more frazzled and impatient in drizzle because the aggravation factor is multiplied when deciding whether it is worth the effort to open an umbrella or put the hood up on the rain jacket. These past few weeks have held some storms and you can go out to YouTube,FB Live or church websites and find encouragement about the storms of life and the unknown to us but known by God. We will get out in drizzle, even though a drizzle laden errand is fret with frustrations but storms, we stay at home or shelter in place. If we happen to be caught out in a storm, we learn lessons for the future and come to know the joy of being in a place that feels familiar or warm or cozy. For the most part, emotionally, I am okay but there are moments. You know moments that catch you unaware like last night while watching HGTV and the commercial comes on that all the familiar faces from those programs we love, talk about home and staying home. Home so others won't get ill and before I knew it, tears welled up and the thought of being so far away from Roy hit me hard. Our schedules are in flux, being changed and knowing that Roy has a tendency not to take things like this serious enough...well, tears. Although these past few days in our conversations he is taking things seriously. No more Metro bus riding into the office where he is about the only person on the fifth floor. He is driving into downtown and most probably those drives will be coming to an end this week. He has ordered monitors and other necessary items to work from home. On Friday he did get a little panicked and said he was buying another freezer to accompany the one in the garage and the refrigerator in the house. I talked him down off that ledge.

Talked to Peggy and Lisa yesterday. Not being much of a phone talker, I forget to call others. Peggy is always so good about keeping in touch so I surprised her yesterday. She was working on photo books and by the end of our conversation, she was outdoors pulling weeds. Lisa called while the usual Sunday routine of taking the garbage bin down to the road but the VM didn't show up till much later. So we got about an hour of conversation in...which was good and always fun.

In trying to be disciplined just a bit...I gave myself a list of things to accomplish yesterday. It wasn't even an aggressive too much to do list and even with the laid back feel, only a few things were taken care of yesterday. Most importantly the strawberries were sliced up. I bought some raspberries, a fruit I don't usually buy and enjoyed some of those in yogurt and cereal this morning.

As most of y'all know Roy is the book smart kind and I am common sense smart. I was talking to Roy as he was doing laundry. He told me he was going to put bleach in with his clothes. What? No! Stop! He didn't know you only use bleach with white things...oh man, he would have looked so colorful in his acid wash, tie dye clothes.

My neighbor Nancy texted me this morning. Cali's kitty, Canvas has been missing for three days. She is an indoor/outdoor cat. We are both afraid that the coyotes got her. Frankie, the mean dude cat, has been hanging around here at night and in the early morning. That kind of confirms that the coyotes were back. I have seen all the ones I care for today, so that is good. But I am sad about Canvas...I am sad for Nancy and her family.

Well, I think it is time for a late lunch. I am eating by expiration dates, so I have a salad planned for lunch. We are not in a drizzle friends. We are in a storm but this Psalm gives great comfort and hope, Psalm 84, we go from strength to strength...we are going through the valley of Baca. God gives grace and glory, no good thing will He withhold. We are so blessed when we trust in Him.

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