“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
This past week was filled with a plethora of good, bad, and odd. It was a miscellaneous week to be sure. So, I thought I would share a little slice of my life with you today.
It was good because we celebrated birthdays. We have a lot of birthdays clustered in September from the 9th to the 17th. Five of them in my immediate family and several more when I include extended family members. So, lots of birthdays.
It was good because we got a bunch of things done. Between me and my husband we had a lot of projects that seemed to go on and on and never get to the state of being done. We managed to get several projects either done or the finish line is in sight. WHOO HOO!!!
I was good because we finally got to go kayaking. We have been wanting to go for a while now, and it seems that everything has happened to ruin our plans from rain to schedule changes, but this past Sunday afternoon, we went kayaking. It was great! The rain held off and nothing called us away from enjoying a little time on the water. Even the alligator stayed away until we were done and then he/she slowly swam through where we had just been.
It was bad because we are still dealing with record Covid-19 numbers here in Florida, although they are going down some. I continue to pray for anyone working in the medical field as well as our teachers as we see more and more people getting sick and many dying. It is a hard season and because we are living under this pandemic threat to our very lives, everything that happens seems worse somehow. We have lost our ability to laugh at ourselves and at life in general when things are as surreal as they seem right now.
It was bad because people I care about are dealing with the harsh realities of life. Realities of life and death that we will all deal with at some point, but again Covid is making those realities much more difficult with restrictions on visitation that are hurting families who are trying to spend final moments with their loved ones.
It was also odd or in some cases just absurd. If you are on my Facebook page you know that one evening when I went to get a sparkling water to drink from our small porch refrigerator (I didn’t want another glass of water, but I didn’t want something sweet either) as I turned the light on, I saw a full-grown opossum eating the cat food. S/he wasn’t really startled by me turning on the light but did pause before continuing to eat the food. When they were done eating their fill, they slowly sauntered over to the water bowl just making themselves at home before going out the door and onto whatever an opossum does. I then saw my cats doing the commando crawl back onto the porch looking around to make sure the intruder was gone. They are too funny and yes, they seem to prefer being outside and are well taken care of and really dislike it if I leave the door shut so they can’t get out.
But I think the funniest incident this past week was when I was home working on some things in my office and the phone rang. I still have a land line although I regularly consider getting rid of it. Anyway, the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID to see that Dunkin Donuts was calling. Now, this made me smile but also got my curiosity up. I mean, while I love donuts, I don’t eat them often at all and I DO NOT drink coffee (yuk) So, I was instantly curious about why Dunkin Donuts might be calling me, so I answered: Hello? Only to hear: Your car warranty is about to expire. If you don’t want high repair costs, please…click. It did give me a good laugh for the day. Several of them actually, as I have shared this with others laughing every time, I tell it. I am even smiling as I write these words at the absurdity of our world and how businesses will use every trick they can to sell something to someone. Unless of course I am wrong, and Dunkin Donuts has diversified and sells both donuts and car warranty insurance. I mean, you never know right?
May your week be filled with good times and funny moments because laughter really is good medicine for the soul.
Peace,
Pastor Beth
Beth's Blog 