THE PERILS OF A SIDEWALK

“Peril” – something that is likely to cause injury, pain, harm, or loss

Peril sounds like something that is unpleasant for sure.  And who would have thought perils would lie on such a simple thing as my front sidewalk?  Certainly not me.  But, alas, it happened not once, but twice in less than two weeks.

Sunday a week ago I was enjoying social time on the church porch after a great time of worship.  Some of the children from one of the Sunday School classes had done clay crafts that day.  One of the little guys, maybe more, had made snakes.  Whether I have mentioned this or not in this blog, those that know me remotely well know that I don’t do snakes.  Give me no photos of snakes, no rubber snakes, no snakes on television, no clay snakes, and certainly no real snakes.  I had related to one of my fellow church members my fear of the creepy crawlers, even going so far as to relate that when the famed snake man named Joe visited the The Girl’s elementary school years ago, I checked her out early before the show.  I respected her fear of snakes as well.  The school had advertised with signage in one hallway.  Being the frequent parent volunteer that I was and being there often, I learned where the sign was placed and detoured every time to my in-school destination via another route, even if it meant more steps for me.  On this particular Sunday a week ago I voiced my gratitude that I had not seen any snakes on my property for the past three summers.  Three.  Count ‘em. 

It wasn’t even four hours after that I was in the garage with The Husband and a couple of guests when I had a need to go into the house.  I beebopped around the corner of the house, got halfway up the front walk, looked down and my mind registered a snake headed toward the steps right up against the house.  It was a big snake.  A. Huge. Snake.  Near my sandaled feet.    Peril for sure.  Somehow instead of having a heart attack right there as I expected in my thoughts of such a situation, my feet quickly turned around and RAN towards the open garage door.  I looked at the husband and  said, “Snake on the front walk”.  I couldn’t even scream.  I was certainly a poor excuse for a snake-scared person if I couldn’t even scream.   The Husband, good man that he is, immediately grabbed the first thing there—in this case the oar of his fishing boat—and ran to the front walk, followed by The Guests.  He, according to the eye witnesses, murdered and disposed of the slinky thing.  In case you wonder, I was NOT an eye witness.   The Husband again, as he has done for many years, proved his worth.  I think I’ll keep him.

Last night was our regular Wednesday night choir practice.  The day had been rainy but the rain had cleared.  Now that the days are getting shorter, it’s dark when we get home.  The Good Husband had left on the porch light, pulled the truck up so as to shine the headlights that way, and I beebopped out of the truck—anxious to get in the house to see the remainder of one of my favorite TV shows, Survivor.   (I can hear your question now and, no, we have no VCR or DVR.)  I headed towards the porch with my keys.   Since the last rain, The Girl and The Son-in-law have been telling us that the spot on the sidewalk at the gutter was VERY slick.  They were right.  When my Croc-clad feet hit that spot, down I went.  Fast. Peril.  Before I knew it, I was flat of my back on the wet cement and just lay there while The Husband hurried out of his truck to see if I was okay.  I felt my left elbow was concrete burned and a slight pain on the right side, but otherwise felt okay.  Oddly, I didn’t even think at that point as I lay there that there could be more slimy things around.  Luckily there wasn’t.  Horrors if there had been with my lying there needing help to get up.  Oh, I just thought of how perilous that would have been.  Whew.  Anyways, this morning I’m a tad sore but not much worse for wear.  Which is amazing at my age if I think about it.  I tried to tell The Husband this morning that I was certain my cardio footwork aided me in dropping to the ground more easily (or so the trainer says it will do) and The Husband explained that couldn’t be true as I fell quickly as one sliding on ice.  He knows.  He watched the whole thing. 

As I considered these two episodes on my front sidewalk, I was thinking of how my spiritual life becomes sometimes racked with peril.  Perils of unbelief, lack of trust, my own mind's thoughts, unforgiveness and even my own arrogance.  Many episodes of my spiritual peril can cause me to become more humble, more forgiving, more tolerant, and even more loving. 

I have said this time and time again and most likely will continue to do so as I believe it wholeheartedly….I am so blessed to have a God who loves me, watches over me, and even allows perilous situations in my path to cause me to be stronger.  

Yes, I plan today to put something to keep anyone from walking over that slickness until it can be “fixed”.  And no, I don’t long to see another snake anywhere for a long time.  And just as I “tend” to these things, I plan to “tend” to my spiritual life as well.  That’s the most important life there is!

DAYS

A few years back I purchased a t-shirt for myself at a neat general store in North Carolina.  I felt it said exactly how I feel on some days.  It needs no further explaining as everyone who reads it has experienced the feeling.  I've been "there" lately.

Here's what the t-shirt says:

Need I say more?

KINDRED SPIRITS

"I think we might be kindred spirits after all,"  said Anne of Green Gables.  I have read the book and seen the movie and every sequel.  It is absolutely one of my favorite movies ever.  I will have to admit that the first movie "Anne of Green Gables" is my favorite for sure of all the Anne with an "e" movies.    I've seen it so many times I can say a lot of the lines right on time.  And exactly word for word.

Many of you will remember my VBS experience this past summer as I wrote about it on this blog.  You can look in June 2013 under the title "VBS" and read about it.  My little class let balloons go up into the sky and one was found 136 miles away by a Christian woman who sent a note back here and encouraged me on a day when I needed something.  I wrote her a note back and said in that note, "I think we might be kindred spirits."  When she replied to me via email (I had given her my contact information), the first sentence was "You had me at the Lucy Maud Montgomery quote."  Well, for all of you who might not know, Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote the book, Anne of Green Gables.  Uh huh.

We talked back and forth via email for the months since then and got acquainted.  There are so many things in common--the first and most important being that we both worship the same Lord and Savior and he is equally precious to the both of us.  Granted, I am old enough to be her mother, but that's okay, too.  We have formed a friendship that is a blessing to me.

Last week, The Balloon Friend made plans to come to my fair town to spend the 24 hours prior to the grand opening of our newest favorite chicken restaurant and she let me know of her plans.  Now for all of you unfamiliar, this fine chicken restaurant chooses 100 people to stay in their parking lot for the 24 hours prior to their grand opening and the 100 people who succeed in their camping experience are given a prize of a year's worth of the delicious chicken meals.  Uh huh.

Well, The Balloon Friend is very experienced in this "experience".  I went to the parking lot of the new restaurant and met her.  I was sooo excited on the way there.  We had seen photos of each other and she was watching and met me as I walked up.  What a delightful person she is!   I was able to meet some of her family members there also.  We talked, got acquainted more, and just enjoyed the fellowship time.  I went to my favorite pizza place and brought pizza back and we shared lunch before I came home.  One can only eat so much chicken at a time!  We both had cameras to document the moment and I will share the photo.  Yes, I am actually IN a photo.

I heard from her when she got home the next morning that she had arrived safely and didn't experience a great deal of our southbound early morning interstate traffic.  I was glad of that.  We again talked about how the Lord had worked through both of us to bless each other.  I am thankful to Him for that blessing and to The Balloon Friend for following her heart to return that balloon in the first place.

Kindred spirits certainly involve a sweet spirit and in this case, the Lord directed His Spirit to make it so.  Yes, it was a very good day!

EGG

I love to eat eggs!  Scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, deviled eggs, colored eggs….any way you make ‘em, I like ‘em.   That is, of course, with the exception of over easy egg cooking style.  I don’t enjoy my yellow egg yolk running all over my egg white.  I like my eggs well done.  I guess I can safely say that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and mostly because it includes eggs.  Unfortunately, my love is not shared by The Son-In-Law nor The Girl.   As much as I love eggs, their dislike of them is just as strong.  But, luckily, we’re still friends. 

There are times in my life when I don’t love eggs.  Many times I have dropped an egg on my kitchen hardwood floor.   What a mess!  Have you ever tried to clean up a cracked messy runny egg from a hardwood floor?  It’s a challenge.  I have read all kinds of things of how to make this task easier and actually tried several of those methods to find that maybe pouring salt on it and then scooping it up makes it a bit easier. 

Last Sunday I was cooking the Sunday pancake breakfast for The Husband before Sunday School.  A while back I had bought a loaf of gluten free cinnamon raisin bread by mistake.  You might question that statement, especially the phrase “by mistake”.  Well, I’ll tell you as much I like eggs, I dislike cinnamon.  I don’t like to eat it, smell it, or look at it.  Ugh.   This time of year, too, the smell of cinnamon is EVERYWHERE.   Even though I dislike it, that thrifty part of me is stronger than that dislike.  I thought to myself how I could make use of the bread without waste and decided that Sunday morning French toast for me might be somewhat edible with the slight cinnamon flavor.  I tried it one Sunday and it was tolerable so until that loaf of gluten free cinnamon raisin bread in the freezer is gone, I will be having French toast on Sundays.    See, when one has a conflict all he has to do is figure out a way to make things work.  Duh.

Back to my story—I get so distracted.  In the mornings, I always have my half of my small cup of coffee, make myself a glass of iced green tea, and then prepare either breakfast or lunch for that day.  Last Sunday, I had the pancake mix ready to cook waiting for The Husband to appear in the kitchen so I decided to go ahead with my preparation for my fine Sunday breakfast.  I had drank my coffee and had my iced green tea ready.  I got out my small square dish, got the egg from the refrigerator, cracked it, threw the eggshell in the trash, picked up my nice full glass of iced green tea to take a sip and ughhhhhhh!  Guess what was there?  My egg.  In the top of my glass of iced green tea.  Beautifully sitting there with the yolk lovely and yellow with clear egg all around it.  Right there in that glass of tea.  I do love eggs but not in my nice glass of iced green tea.  That kind of turns one’s stomach to a disgusting feeling.  

The scary part is that I had no idea I had done such a deed.  I immediately poured out the egg and the ice and the tea and put the glass in the dishwasher, all the while thinking I was surely losing what mind I had left.  I couldn’t even make myself rinse the glass out and use the used glass.  It was so gross.  So I eventually got the breakfast done, eaten, and went to Sunday School. 

I thought about the experience several times this past week.  How often do I go about a task without my mind on my business?   Most of the time.  My mind is so full of all there is “to do” or at least I THINK there is to do and has very little mind relaxation.  I’m thinking that the Lord really wants us to keep our minds on His business and rest in Him.  The scriptures say in red letters meaning that Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew ll:28)  What a wonderful promise that is to be certain!  And it’s only one of the many promises we have as children of His.

Today had many instances in it that made it, for me, “an egg in my tea” kind of day.  Those experiences teach me that when those times and days come and I think of that egg in my tea, I am reminded that even when I “mess up”, God is always there to help me start over.   With a clean glass, too. 

I am blessed.