One of Those Days (05/23/2024)

It was one of those days, you know the kind, when the darndest things happen with great frequency. It started first thing in the morning when I went to move my porch table companion, Freddie the Frog, one of my daughter’s creations, and when I lifted him by his head, it came off. “Uh, oh!” I told myself. “You shouldn’t have done it that way!” I set his head next to his foot until I could get some gorilla glue, apologizing intensely. I should have known then that it was going to be one of those days.

I went to answer my emails, one of which was setting up a meeting. I chose the first option. Then I looked at my calendar (I know, I should have done it in reverse order), and I realized I had a conflict. So, quickly I emailed again choosing the second option apologetically. Then I read an email from a friend who wanted to go, too, and couldn’t make the 2nd option, so I emailed a third time even more apologetically, asking for the first option after all. I’m sure the receiver of those emails moved me to the “problematic” column before lunch.

I was on the phone with my daughter when the mowers came. I immediately thought of the exposed cable line our cable guy left to be buried at some unknown date by a third party. Images of the mower running over the cable and cable pieces going everywhere dashed through my mind. I told my daughter to hold on while I hurriedly called my husband to do something. Luckily that went better.

Realizing that it was “one of those days,” I tried to minimize what I did. But we had to eat. So, I started making supper and set off the smoke alarm. Truly, it wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t burning the food, but the smoke alarm went off. My husband came running. He was able to get it to shut up finally. He liked dinner after he surveyed it carefully for char.

And shortly after dinner, as I worked on my computer for a bit before my husband’s and my usual evening movie, I heard this chirp that grew into a sort of whistle that eventually morphed into an alarm. The smoke alarm that had falsely judged my cooking earlier needed a new battery. So, I called my husband and together we took care of that troublemaker.

Before bed, I took this circus to the porch and spread it out before the LORD as I reflected upon my day. There were no serious, un-fixable dilemmas, but there were plenty of frustraters. I remembered the adage, “Into every life, some rain must fall.” I raised the question with the LORD, “Why is that, LORD?” But the LORD knew it wasn’t really a question I wanted answered as much as a whine from His child who wanted something other than what was served.

But as I sat, reflecting upon my day, one point kept coming back and flooding my mind. I ask the LORD to be present to me day in and day out, moment to moment. And yet I don’t ask the same of myself. I need to be more present to the moment, to the environment. I need to think before I act. And I need to be responsible – “capable of responding.” I thanked the LORD for my husband who came to the rescue repeatedly; my life is truly enhanced by his companionship. I thanked the LORD for the lessons of the day and for my life as a whole.

As we journey in faith, hope and love, let us remain open to the little inconvenient lessons that present themselves along the way. Let us take time daily to reflect upon the events of the day, our relationships with others, and how the LORD can use such small things to bring us around, to convince us to turn, to return, if we are open to the honest self-reflection and to grace. It was one of those days, for sure – not what I ordered but probably just what I needed.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.