The Calm Before Shopping the Tax Free Weekend

I just got back from lunch, in The Bistro at The Nord. A fellow traveler on the journey of heart issues and I met. We talked about a lot of stuff but there was a smattering of shop talk of the heart kind in between our other subjects. There is all such manner of topics, meds, doctors, little chest pains here and there, fears, prescribed life changes and the such. Since we both have slimmed down considerably, we loved talking about smaller sizes. In fact after lunch we celebrated smaller sizes by doing some shopping on level 2 in Point of View. Even thought the special of crab mac and cheese was tempting, we both made the right choice of the crab stack. We sat there in my favorite booth in The Bistro and reveled in the generous gift of God of extending our lives and enjoying and giving our gratitude to Him for such a wonderful day. We were ensconced in that booth and several times as we compared our journeys and reminded ourselves of our treasured friendship, it likened the thought and comparison of the deep bonds that form in bunkers and trenches of those involved in war. Although we didn't do this verbally, as we talked and gave all glory to God for His goodness to us in the land of the living, we could have shouted...or maybe just said, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26





It seems life is to be lived in rhythms not balance. We need to be more in tune with the ebb and flow and seasons or even trans-seasonal times. It is more about managing our energy than it is about managing our time. It is being fully aware of what God is doing or saying to us. The other night David Jeremiah said something so interesting. He named Moses, Elijah, Job, the disciples and a few other Biblical people whose names now escape me and David J made the point that God spoke to them out of the storm. David Jeremiah said, when we are in a stormy season, know that the Lord is speaking to us, we have to stop listening to the wind, the thunder and storm noises to hear His voice and listen to the wise word He has for us. Speaking for myself, too many times I am running away from the sounds of the storm because storm noises can scare me. I'm seeking shelter instead of seeking Creator God in the midst of the storm.





Nordstrom and The Galleria in general had a calm about it today. Everyone is waiting to descend upon retailers tomorrow to start off tax free weekend. The mall had the feel of everyone already being back in school. Even Macy's was good. There must be a customer service emphasis at the Macy's in The Galleria. Customers are greeted from all over the store. They are even using paper shopping bags. Those bags are like gold, Jerry, gold. There is not a bag to spare, no spare bags except for huge plastic things that don't really do the job. Today, the Galleria Macy's didn't have what the Memorial City one has in some merchandise I was interested in purchasing. Wow, they ordered it online for me and included free shipping. Macy's is getting all Nordstrom-like. Very nice!



I leave you with this fun video. This could so happen in the parking lots and parking garages in and around Houston. Be careful out there all you brave ones attempting tax free weekend.