Fooling Mother Nature … or, at Least, Ourselves

Recently, the small talk I have enjoyed with others about the weather has taken a darker tone. As yet another snow storm rolls toward us from the western horizon, and as icy freezing temps keep their choke-hold on us, I am starting to feel the weariness of this winter. Others have sure expressed that to me, too, and a few even fret about their annual descent into cabin fever — for some reason it feels just a little bit worse this year than most. And I don’t just mean to me. I mean that others have expressed a seasonal weariness that feels excessive.

She who laughs last…

Sometimes, you just have to laugh. Sometimes, the world is so out of whack it’s ludicrous, and the only logical response is a good, hard laugh.

Know what I’m talking about? I bet you do. We all experience it. We all go through times when nothing seems quite right. When there are issues, small and large, that line up one behind the other, waiting for us to deal with them. Or they don’t even have the decency to get in line–they pile up all at once.

My husband and I are going through a few, well, ‘adventures’ right now. I won’t bore you with the complete story. But things started going slightly awry in October, and they haven’t righted themselves yet. To give you a rough idea, the ‘adventures’ have involved financial surprises, an ambulance ride, hospital stay, attempted break-in, police & canine units, surgery, a decision to move, and the subsequent mad scramble to clean the house we’re now selling to make it look as if no one has lived in it for the past 17 years. You know. Run-of-the-mill stuff.

But last Saturday’s adventures were what pushed me over the top. I had bought groceries & sent them to the drive-through. I decided to get cash at the bank before actually retrieving the groceries, since there was a line of cars before me. As I pulled into the bank parking lot, a woman flagged me down to tell me I had a flat tire. Flat-as-a-pancake flat. I waited for AAA (thankfully, the man came quickly), got my spare put on, got cash, and returned to the grocery store…to discover that they had given someone else my groceries. And I started to laugh. Truly, I had a hard time stopping. And it made me feel better.

One of my favorite phrases is from a poem entitled “A Promise Through the Ages Rings” by Alicia Carpenter. In the poem, Carpenter points out that, even in our darkest moments, even in our deepest winters, “always, always something sings.” And I love hearing the literal proof of that on cold, dark winter days when I catch the sound of birds singing beautifully in the frozen branches. It’s a sacred thing. The poem refers to this note of hope as the Easter message: “from deep despair & perished things, a green shoot always, always springs, and something always, always sings.”

I love the truth in that. It gives me hope. Even in bleak life moments, I know that things will be right again.

But I’m wondering if there’s a corollary to this, which is “something always, always laughs.” Not in a mean way. But in a way that sees the big picture & recognizes the absurdity in this small moment in life. And if “something always, always laughs,” then I want to make sure I’m laughing with it.

Have a good laugh at yourself this week!

~ Jolene Satre, Publisher

P. S. The woman who got our groceries kindly let the store know she had them, and the store then delivered them to us…along with a box of candy!

Pastor Josh, Unplugged

It was my turn this week to lead the Preschool Chapel Chat on Tuesday morning, so I brought in a toy orb that has a kind of electrical lightning storm which can be viewed through its partially opaque surface. Imagine a see-through crystal ball (except it is made of plastic) that lets you watch the electrical current zap and zip around with random electrifying bursts. It’s kind of cool to watch. Plus, when you put your finger anywhere on the orb, the lightning bolts shoot harmlessly toward your fingertips. Like any good preacher to children, I had everything set up ahead of time. And I left the cord obviously unplugged so I could make a point that we need to be connected to our own divine power source. That’s always a good message to share with children, right?

Déjà Vu All Do-Over Again

Isn’t the term, ‘do-over,’ one of the more grace-filled expressions we have? You know what I mean, right? This phrase is usually applied in children’s pick-up sports when a judgment call needs to be made because you can’t quite tell if a strike has been struck, a goal has been achieved, a pass has been completed, or a foul has been committed. So a wise kid will shout “DO-OVER,” which will immediately end any potential bickering or arguing. Everybody will re-set, and everybody will start the play over from that point. No objecting or complaining or grumbling about it is allowed. All the kids are in collective agreement that this is the best course of action for all concerned.

If you think about it, that is such a grace-filled and loving way to resolve a conflict, isn’t it?