Gruntled

I learned something wonderful Sunday at church. Our pastor asked us if we were gruntled. Now, immediately, I thought, nah, there isn't such a thing. We hear about disgruntled and usually the descriptive after that word is postal worker. Gruntled is a word and one that has been used for a very long time. The word gruntled means, pleased, happy, satisfied. Who knew? It is the right word that I have been looking for the past couple of weeks. We've talked several times over the past few weeks about being content. We have actually been experiencing that. How can one not be happy living in such a beautiful area with mountains surrounding our valley? So you might say, how is gruntled used in a sermon? Glad you asked, well kind of asked. We are in the book of John and looking at the first chapter, with an emphasis on John the Baptist. John was so gruntled to proclaim, 'Look, it is the Lamb of God!" 

In my daily readings I have found myself stopped on this, when Jesus says "in a little while." Found in John 16. Love the disciples haven't a clue what He is talking about and then they kind of get it and marvel at understanding after Jesus goes literal after speaking figurative. The memory came to me of my mom. She usually made extra pie dough whenever making a pie. My brother and I knew what that meant. She would roll out the dough, put butter, cinnamon and sugar on the dough, roll it back up and slice it and place it in the oven to bake. You know, cinnamon thingies. We could hardly contain our eagerness to have those as a special treat. So, we did what most kids do, we bugged our mom wondering when she would be finished making the pie and the pie was clearly the main event, so that she could assemble our dough. Her response to when was, in a little while. I think we tried to do other things but I am sure we made it back to the kitchen to check on progress. Now the best times? When she didn't make us save a few for our father. Oh, happy, happy day! Guess you could say we were very gruntled with the end result.

I find myself in those "in a little while" moments more concerned with the what and when, rather than the process. What gets my attention in the little while? Love the commentary in the Ray Stedman devotion I read explaining all that entails with little whiles. Yolanda Adams sings a song, Afterwhile. Great lyrics and message. Guess we could find ourselves in little or after whiles briefly or momentarily.

We had a storm Tuesday night, with tornado warnings. They say the last tornado warning for Asheville was in 1999. Going into Weaverville yesterday the roads were littered with tree limbs. The trees that had fallen had been removed from roads but all along the side were huge logs. The sky got that sick green gray and the wind was fierce. Only the very tall sunflower didn't make it. Our part of the county didn't have the worst of it but it was bad enough.

The Trio and The Boys are not getting along this week. It's getting a little too territorial for my liking. These cats live by, I want attention and I don't care if it is bad attention. Mr Mo spends his morning jealous, well make that his whole life, he is jealous. So he picks fights and the other cats are a little bigger than he. So, he acts out. Chubola retreats from all this nonsense, smart girl but she can deal it when she wants to. Willie has changed his daily residence from upstairs under the day bed, to downstairs on a cool metal kitchen chair. He is blessed and cursed with long hair. 

This morning I am here at home gruntled, happy and content. The cat battle zone is over for now and nap time is beginning. Even though I struggle many a Wednesday feeling time restricted, I was content. It has been a good feeling these past few months even in the midst of adjusting to new meds, being in beat (mostly) and realizing there are a few health issues (mostly) that will be addressed in the coming month, feeling pretty gruntled. I've been thinking and remembering good times that have parlayed themselves into the very gruntled now. Last night a Houston friend called and we laughed, we remembered, both of us sentimental but deny that and so we did that as well in our conversation. Such fun and exciting times and now things are fun but maybe not so exciting. Yet, I am gruntled. I need to be a better friend and have been remiss in being exactly that not just to Houston friends but friends here. I used to say in the long ago, I am not good at being many things, but I am good at being a friend. Back then when Roy poured himself into his career making sure it was all done to the best of perfection that might be out there, as he moved up or lateral and maybe in the beginning down, his goal was to give me the moon if I wanted it. He loved learning all those years and made him a great jack of all trades, accountant, auditor, compliance, law and oh yeah, there was a MBA in finance. I was always so thankful when we met he already had his CPA because I told him, I could never be married to someone who studied all the time. Apparently, I can be. I never thought he would adjust to retirement like he did and with that in mind had lined up all kinds of volunteer projects to keep him busy. Probably that would have worked in Texas but here he took to the slower pace of life. Twice in fact, he has apologized to me for being a work-a-holic and now realizes he put me in a situation where I needed to find worth and not be willynilly with my time. Those words mean so much. So, that's why I was a much better friend then than I am now.  Friendships were such a lifeline to living, they still are. 

Roy has gone to work out, stop in the grocery store and then Windy Hill Farms. I'm doing laundry and stop in between to write on the ol' blog. Think we are rather gruntled right now.