Joy in the Journey Take 6
I’m complaining about many things these days, but there is one thing I definitely am NOT complaining about!
If you know anything about me from former blogs, you realize cooking is NOT my gift! As evidenced by the picture above, and despite the fact I do not have to prepare but one meal or snack a day, I still have a talent for messing up things. But even if a piece of toast is a little dark around the edges and the cream cheese is a little on the crispy side, if it’s served with raspberries, it is worth eating.
Here at the old people’s place, we have the most wonderful cooks. Twice a day we are well fed with good food served by the kindest, most patient women in the world! Not only don’t I have to cook, there is no clean up afterward.
Which means I need to stop complaining about having to be sociable at meal time twice a day
No promises. Just a little good intention headed in the right direction. Don’t know how much my introvert tendencies will overtake my willpower. Like I say … no promises.
As I do try to find my joy in this journey, I think about those who fled Egypt and ended up in their wilderness. I’ve written before about my wonder at their behavior. God drops tasty morsels from heaven. They insist on meat. Again God provides, but that provision requires an enormous amount of work. Personally, it sounds like a bad move on Israel’s part.
I wonder if I don’t stop complaining about this wilderness I’m in, what God’s response to my ingratitude will be. I’m a wee bit afraid to find out. Okay. A lot bit afraid.
Of course, God doesn’t work with the same crazy mindset as I do. He’s a lot more patient, and loving, and draws those (aka me) to realize the errors of their wicked ways, repent, and head another direction.
But since I’ve almost reached the place of enjoying wallering in my ‘depths of despair’, I’m still trudging along complaining with every step.
I think I’m going to finish this another day since I have some serious thinking to do.
So it’s four in the morning the next day, and I have a different wondering. I have to laugh at this point. My girls always quote a preacher they heard once whose sermon title he kept repeating. To make the story better, they quote his statement, ‘I wonder as I wander,’ in the voice of the minister in The Princess Bride. Which at this point in my life makes perfect sense.
‘I wonder as I wonder’ what lessons I’ve learned. Maybe that I am too attached to things. The more I get rid of, the more hardened I am against losing the things I’ve treasured through the years. Like the ancient Hebrews, maybe I have had my own idols.
As I figure out how to be an introvert in an ‘extrovert environment’, how can I be true to myself without appearing rude? How do I put up with the quirks of so many others when I can’t even deal with my own idiosyncrasies? How do I protect myself against getting involved in the day to day drama?
Which makes me wonder if someone should make a TV show about an old people’s place, called 90210 Of The Ancients, or maybe, Antics of the Aged, or maybe, Chronicles of the Crippled Curmudgeons, or Deeds and Delusions of the Decrepit, or maybe …
Anyway.
Maybe through this wilderness I should find more things to laugh about.
Maybe I shouldn’t think so much. (I’m not even going down that disturbing bunny trail!!!)
So here’s a joke to get a laugh that maybe goes along with Ronald and me and our monthly hymn sings we sponsor.
A retired lady named Gertrude volunteered to entertain patients in an assisted living home. She took her portable keyboard to a bedridden lady’s room. For the next fifteen minutes Gertrude played and sang her heart out for Myrtle. Upon leaving, Gertrude encouraged Myrtle, ‘I hope. you get better,’ she said with a smile. Myrtle replied, ‘I hope you get better, too!’
Mercy! This time of the morning and I have a horrible case of the giggles! I just read a bunch of jokes for seniors on the ‘Scary Mommy’ website. It ended with the ‘Prayer for Good Health for Seniors. God grant me the Senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.’
I copied that without permission. Sorry.
I’m going to make today’s journey to joy start with, ‘A merry heart does good like a medicine,’ and laugh my way through the day.
Blessings
Kara Beth
