Inconvenient Blessings...

This morning I got everyone ready for preschool and a morning of running errands… hopped in the car… dropped the goose off… drove to Target… calmed Sissy down… put on my makeup… and then… realized I had forgotten my wallet… back home we went, hoping that we didn’t get pulled-over on the way.

By now, Sissy was finally asleep, so I turned off the radio and enjoyed the soothing sounds of the sleep sheep (Sissy’s white noise maker). It was then I realized just how long its been since I stopped to enjoy the quiet. Its not that I haven’t appreciated these brief and rare peaceful moments, trust me… I appreciate every minute of silence... But I usually take this time to clean-up, or catch-up. These moments are spent on ordinary chores, which though necessary and often overdue sometimes lead me to neglect the most important things.

So today, instead of grabbing my wallet and rushing back to my morning errands… I am going to enjoy this time. Instead of using Sissy’s nap to scrub toilets, wash clothes, or sew I am sitting by the window watching the sun shine through the trees… thanking God that I left my wallet… thanking Him that instead of being frustrated with my forgetfulness, somewhere along the way I have learned that we will never know what good may come from ordinary “inconveniences”… learned what things are worth getting upset about and what things are better to laugh at… learned that sometimes its better to turn your chair toward the window, let your house be a mess, and let your heart be full.

Or, as Frederick Buechner puts it in his book Listening to your Life
(a book which if you don’t have you should)…
“There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him but all the more fascinatingly because of that [….] Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

I hope you forget your wallet today… or tomorrow… or someday when you need to turn your chair away from the mess and toward the window.

"The heavens declare the glory of God,and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,and night to night reveals knowledge."
~Psalm 19:1-2