Miscellanea

I returned from Susanna's last Wednesday after a lovely week with her and family. I enjoyed, again, just living her life alongside her - walking, enjoying the activity of the ever-busy streets, hanging out at parks while watching the children play, finding wonderful bagels for lunch, visiting very diverse friends with this connoisseur of people, and drinking their delicious "Gorilla" coffee. It was so much fun spending time with a slightly older and much more verbal Micah, and getting to know little toddler-Ellie. High points outside the regular, very pleasant routine, were two visits to Prospect Park - for the New York symphony concert and for a Sunday afternoon picnic- then out day's outing to the Connecticut seaside. We visited cousin Betty's beautiful village of Stonington on Saturday though, unfortunately, she was not home....Maybe next time. I also enjoyed a quick visit with Tom Yagoda - always so faithful to come by, then lunch out with Toni. Grandma has broken her hip badly in a fall, but with typical determination is on the mend. Toni said she expected to go to Chaffey's shortly so guess she would be there now - for a week or so...

I flew into JFK but out from LaGuardia. On the first leg of the journey - from New York to Atlanta- I was in front of a consummate salesmen-type. I could distinguish little of his ongoing chat with his seatmate once we were in the air, but did get some fragments of a business call while still on the tarmac..."Hi, Mel, so how are we doing today?...That's super, just super!...And how are things moving along?...Awesome! Awesomely awesome!..." And, mercifully, I heard no more.

In Atlanta, we passengers had all boarded a small plane to fly to Chattanooga, were belted, had heard the safety presentation then sat...and sat...and sat. The auxiliary power apparatus had failed...Would they be able to fix it? Maybe...And we sat some more...Finally, we were released back to the airport for a two-hour wait while Delta tried to formulate plans...No, plane couldn't be fixed on the spot so another came round. On we got again and it was time for the door to be closed. The ground crew member shouted up, "It doesn't close properly. I'll push and you pull...." And that's how it was...All ready to go when the flight door opened. Oh, no. What now? And a huge tray with fast food is handed up to the stewardess who opens a storage area above the front seats and puts it in...for the crew, whenever they have time to eat it, they are so far behind schedule...Twenty minutes in the air and we are in Chattanooga...The pilot comes out to push open the faulty door and almost tumbles out with the force of the free-fall...Well, I'm home!

Katherine, the minister's wife, asked me to give a brief devotional for Grace's shower so I decided to talk around the proverb, "The wise woman builds her house. with her own hands, the foolish one tears hers down." That proverb has always alarmed me - that I have the power to tear down my house and all that I hold most dear...I began to think through the only alternative to this - to grow in sincere godliness, of course, and tried to apply this - practically - to the mothers of young children always so tired and strapped for time. I calculated that if a young mom spends even fifteen minutes a day six days a week in Bible study and prayer, the another ten to fifteen a day with a devotional time with her husband....Add to this a forty-five minute sermon she really attends to, half an hour of Sunday School, plus half an hour of study mid-week - this is a grand total of almost six hours of devotional time per week. Add to that the bullet prayers Christians pray throughout the day, and it is truly enough for a rich spiritual life, nothing to be ashamed of in that busy season of life...Twice the alloted time for the average university course!

Finally, I am an inveterate t-shirt slogan reader...My favorite from NYC: "A good lawyer knows the law. The best lawyer knows the judge...."