I told you only a few days ago that I was waiting for someone to flock Anna and myself.
Well, today I rose early so I could get some stuff done around the house before Joanna and I took our walk. The main floor of our house was stuffy so I opened the back patio door to let some air in. A small flamingo stood waiting.
Opening the front door led me to the bulk of the flock. A letter tied around one flamingo’s neck announced:
Be forewarned–one of you is next ;)
I got done with work only 40 minutes late today. My attitude, well, it could have been better. I was tired, frustrated, reliving the stresses of the day. Missing paperwork. Feeling rushed. Inconsiderate guests. Not enough to drink. Hot and muggy. Chaotic clean-up. It wasn’t one of my best days.
I arrived at the library only 3 minutes before closing–certainly not enough time to go in to return my books. I dropped them in the book drop. Seeing my friend Joanna’s car parked nearby, I decided on a whim to park next to her and wait until she came out. It was only a few minutes before she emerged.
We chatted. I vented. She asked me if I’d like to go for a walk tomorrow morning. Unexpected blessings. A chance to catch up. It’s been a long time. Something to look forward to. A reason to not spend all night on the computer. Re-awakening friendship. God is good.
It’s been a discouraging last several months–with so many things going on personally and feeling like the heavens are brass. Feeling like my prayers are unheard–or maybe I’m not even really praying–maybe I’m just repeating a ritual trying to conjure something into existence.
It’s been raining almost continually in Nebraska this entire spring. Many of the farmers are still struggling to get their crops planted. But my heart has been in drought.
Today, the rains began to fall–and I can’t say how wonderful it feels.
Instead of having a formal “class” in Sunday School today, we prayed together for requests and then headed out into pre-service prayer for a time of personally seeking God. God led me to Jeremiah 29–my life verses.
Verse 10 says “After 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you.” Wow. How quick I am to doubt that God will fulfill His word–yet the Jews had to wait 70 years for their return from captivity.
Verse 11 gives hope: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you…thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God reminded me not to despair–His plans for me haven’t changed. The thoughts that He has toward me still include a future and a hope.
Verses 12-14 echo the inklings God has been speaking through Matthew–“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you…” God isn’t so far off that He will not be found. When I ask, I will receive. When I seek, I will find. He opens the door to me when I knock.
Finally, God took me back to Matthew 6:25-34 for the bottom line: “Do not worry. I am God. Seek Me.”
Amen
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been devoting a good deal of my non-working time to updating my website to version 6. Today, on a whim, I decided to break my routine of doing a page (or section) in order according to the new and improved sidebar–and instead, I created an RSS feed for my site.
I’m sure glad that I did too. I’ve been planning to create one for quite some time now, but figured I could wait until I had v.6 up and running. Good thing I didn’t follow that figuring. It just so happens that creating a feed requires inserting certain bits of text in the header and sidebar of every page of my site–making it very worthwhile to put it in before the site grows huge. This way, I only had to modify the 7 pages I already have done in version 6–and I can just copy my template and write my pages as normal for the rest of them.
So, to all my dedicated readers (all 3 or so of you ;-)) and to Aunt Rachel (who would read if I had an RSS feed), I offer: the bekahcubed feed.
Click on the above link to access the feed–or click on the “RSS feed” button on the sidebar of version 6 pages–or use your web browser’s (or rss aggregator’s) automatic detection system.
Vive la feed!
I dropped by my folk’s home this evening to borrow a DVD–and discovered that sometime in the last few days, a mini-flock of these
had landed in their lawn.
One in particular caught my eye
. This flamingo sat right by the front door bearing a peculiar note addressed to “THE MENTERZ”. I talked to Mom later and learned that the letter inside said that we’d been flocked by “You know who. NOT!”
The flamingos are part of a Z-360 fundraiser. Individuals can pay $15 to get a flock of flamingos to migrate to someone’s yard. Z-360 offers free removal of the flock after 48 hours–or the individual who was flocked can opt to send them on to someone else for only $10. What a deal! I keep hoping that someone will flock me so I can get the discount rate. ;-)
I’ve been working fervently behind the scenes to upgrade my website to version 6. My first order of business was redoing the About Me segment. Version 5 included selected items from my list of life goals–so I thought I’d expand that in version 6.
I’ve always known I had a lot of goals. I just didn’t quite get how many until I started recording them on a website–and discovered that I definitely couldn’t put them all on one page. Three pages still includes much too much scrolling. And those are only the easily categorized goals: Arts and Crafts, Educational, and Travel. That doesn’t include spiritual goals, health goals, homemaking goals–and the myriads of hard-to-classify goals.
I’ve removed the goals that I’ve categorized from my “master list” that I have been keeping for years on my computer. With those gone, my “master list” is ONLY 51 pages long. Amazing!
Are you a goal setter? Do we have any of the same goals? I’d love to work on them together! ;-)
I am a firm believer in having mottoes for life. One of mine is “Always have a bag packed.” The idea popped into my head one day as I was brainstorming story ideas–and I’ve worked towards it ever since.
I’m reminded of the Passover Seder, where participants are dressed in cloak and sandals–ready to depart as soon as God works their deliverance. I’ve always loved all the symbolism of the Passover–and this motto seemed to fit right in. I have my bag packed literally because I can never know when I might be offered the chance to travel on the fly. And I figuratively have my bag packed, ready to obey whenever God says “go”.
In the literal sense, I have a carry-on size suitcase that I carefully repack after each trip. It contains just what’s needed for a week-long excursion–or longer if you do laundry:
In addition, the main compartment contains:
The front pockets of the bag contain all the necessities of life:
It’s all ready so that all I have to do is grab my Bible, my meds, and any seasonal supplies (swimsuit or coat or whatever) and go. In case I’m headed out of the country, my passport and appropriate information is hidden away elsewhere in the house inside a travel wallet.
The figurative sense, the deeper sense, of the motto is a bit harder to do. I find myself growing attached to the things of this earth, comfortable with my church, my job, my home. I slip into complacency and collect thing after thing. But in the back of my mind, my motto reminds me: “At any time, God could call you away from all this. Are you ready to go?”
I’ve heard back from a family friend in Mexico. She confirms that she is still looking for someone to come down and tutor her 14 year old daughter. Am I ready to go? I’ll have to finagle a few things, jimmy a few details. I’ll have to take some time off work, maybe raise a wee bit of money. I’ll have to figure out how to get down there. But otherwise, I’m ready to go. The only thing to deal with is details–not whether I’ll be able to go. I’ve been working towards a schedule, a life, that will give me this freedom–the freedom to drop it all and answer the call of God.
So today, my first day back from a week in Illinois, I did my laundry and repacked my bag. I popped a Spanish tape in my car cassette player. My bag’s packed, Lord. Send me wherever You will.
This weekend surely was not my time to shine as a Navigational Star. Debbie and I have gotten lost at least once every time we have ventured out alone.
On Friday, we drove up to Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. Uncle Steve had printed out MapQuest directions for us to get there–but sometimes MapQuest just doesn’t do the job. Like when you miss a “right turn onto exit ramp for such and such a street” and loop around back to that street and decide to take a left turn onto it so that you’ll still be heading in the same direction. Except that “right turn onto exit ramp for such and such a street” loops you around so that you’re really heading LEFT from the original direction–and taking a left from the opposite direction will direct you in the opposite way! (My main beef with MapQuest is its lack of directions–it always states R, L, etc., but never E, W, N, S.)
Then there was today. We were going into Chicago for the day to tour a couple of museums–armed with a Metra train schedule, a hand-drawn map from Aunt Rachel directing us to the train station, and a Chicago guidebook I’d checked out of the library back in Lincoln. We arrived at the train station in plenty of time for our 9:48 departure–only to be told that since today was a holiday, the Metra was running on the Sunday schedule and the next train wouldn’t be in until 10:48. We walked over to watch the town’s Memorial Day event while we were waiting and made it back to the train station for the 10:48 train.
We arrived in Ogilvie Transportation Center somewhere around 12:30–and I pulled out my guidebook so that we could make our way down to Field Museum–our first stop for the day. Problem was, I was looking at the map that said “Upper Loop” and it didn’t have “Canal Street” anywhere. So I was trying to ascertain our location based only on “Monroe Street” (or whatever that street was) and a vague thought that a river was located nearby. We started walking. The neighborhood became less and less dense–we saw fewer and fewer skyscrapers. We started to wonder if maybe we were going in the wrong direction. Ducking into a Walgreens for a quick restroom break and a chance to regroup, we discovered that we had been heading due WEST–away from the lake. The more comprehensive map in the back of the guidebook got us straightened out and we finally made our way to Field. We probably only added a mile or two to our already long jaunt.
The ride home was a breeze. Take the train back to Woodstock, drive along this road and that until we get home. We took all the right turns, recognized all the roads. It was great. We were on a roll. Until we got to one intersection that I wasn’t sure I recognized. It was a two way stop with a flashing light, and the intersection was set at a bit of an angle. Debbie thought she remembered it so we continued on. We were looking for the turn off to Rachel and Steve’s neighborhood. It couldn’t be that hard, we knew what it looked like. We knew it was on the right side of the road. We couldn’t miss it. So we drove on…and on…and on. We drove past farm after farm after farm–and were almost certain that we were NOT getting any closer to town. We turned around and called Steve and Rachel. “Um. This is Debbie. We’re on River Road and we’re lost.” Turns out their neighborhood was before the intersection Debbie had recognized and I hadn’t–we’d been too busy talking to notice the turnoff when we’d passed it. And the intersection? Well, Debbie recognized it from when we’d turned onto it to get gas on FRIDAY when we’d gone to Cantigny. Go figure!
I’m really not as bad with directions as this weekend might make me out to be. Honest!
I woke up yesterday with a dozen things to do–finish my morning routine, empty out my car, take the car down to Walmart to get his oil changed and everything checked, grab some last minute groceries, pack everything into the car (including last minute items), clean out the fridge, turn off my computer, vacuum the dirt from the planted pot I knocked over the night before, take out the trash, lock up the house, and fill the car up with gas–all before 9 am when we would be leaving.
I dropped Anna and Debbie off at Mom and Dad’s house to hang out with the others while I filled up with gas at the corner gas station. I filled up and got into the car. I turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. No radio, no lights, nothing. Certainly not the engine turning over. I jiggled the gear shift and repeated. Nothing. I turned the steering wheel and repeated. Still nothing. I called my parents in desperation. Joseph and Daniel came out to help–and discovered that they couldn’t do anything either. Thanks a lot, Jack.
We decided to go in Dan’s car instead. We transferred all our stuff into his car and pushed my car into a parking spot. Mom called Dad to let him know what we’d decided to do–He said, “Good luck. If Danny’s car dies on the way, leave it there.” If you haven’t guessed, my Dad doesn’t have that much confidence in Dan’s car. Nonetheless, we made it there safely–and even in time for Rachel’s homemade pizza before Aaron’s eighth grade graduation.
I mentioned our car situation at the dinner table, and Uncle Steve’s Dad pipes up: “Well, that could be just a loose battery cable.” I said I hoped so. When it was about time to go to bed and I took out my cell phone to recharge it overnight, I saw that I had missed a call from my mom. Her message said that Dad had gone to look at Jack and that it was just a loose battery cable–so it’s all fixed now. Thanks a lot, Jack!
Not that it’s really been that bad. Debbie and I didn’t end up driving ourselves on the way up–Dan drove us instead. That meant we didn’t get good private girl time–but it also meant we didn’t have to drive, or follow Joseph’s less than stellar leadership (that is, as a leader of a caravan). And Dan’s car does get better gas mileage than Jack does–especially a plus once we reached Illinois, where gas prices range from $4.009 to $4.299 per gallon. Ouch! So I suppose, other than teaching me a bit about humility and flexibility and forgiveness, the switch wasn’t that bad. Thanks a lot, Jack.
Debbie and I have been discussing going on a road trip for years–probably 4 or more. But we’ve always discovered problems that have kept us from doing so–our crazy schedules, her unreliable car, Benny (my old car) going on the fritz, my dad and hers feeling uncomfortable with just the girls traveling alone. So we haven’t gone.
But tomorrow morning, that’s all going to change. My Cousin Matt is graduating from high school in Illinois this weekend, and I decided to go up for it since I have Memorial Day off and have a few vacation days at work. I invited Debbie to come with me–and it just so happens that she was able to arrange to make it too. So we’re finally going on a road trip.
We’ll be taking Jack (my car, short for Clive Staples) and caravanning with my cousin Joe (Matt’s brother), my brother Dan, and Joe’s girlfriend Dana in my Aunt Patty’s van. We’ll drop my sister Anna off in Omaha at the airport for her flight into San Antonio for the national conference of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (and to spend time with her college roommate Emily). Then we’ll be on the road. We should get up in time for Matt’s little brother Aaron’s 8th grade graduation Thursday evening.
Matt’s graduation is on Saturday, and we plan on spending Saturday and Sunday with the family. Joe, Dan, and Dana will return to Lincoln on Sunday–and Debbie and I will stick around until Tuesday. We’ll head into Chicago on Friday or Monday or both. It just so happened that Debbie’s work really needed her on Wednesday–and my work offered to pay for me to get some ServeSafe training on Wednesday–so it works well for both of us to return on Tuesday.
It’ll be fun–a memory making trip, a chance to catch up, a chance to make good on old dreams, and a chance to cross another item off my list of things to do before I die. I’ll return home and type “DA: May 27, 2008” behind “Take road trip” in my “Goals” file. Date Accomplished. One of my favorite things to type. The day when talk became reality and dreams came true. And that day–well, it all starts tomorrow.