When another soul makes the effort to speak words to you, do you make eye contact, do you attempt to connect, or are you to busy with “You”? Tough question, I know! I am not immune to selfishness, to having more on my mind about my things than the hearts of others. This is just a thought, but perhaps we should look up! Look up from ourselves, look up from our cell phones, look up from our lives, successes, failures, SELF!
I am daring to be different, not perfect, just different! I will go down that narrow path, and choose to look up! I need to stop looking at me, or I will miss the ones who need me to look into their eyes, to connect…
If you or I choose my tagline, the above words are of the like that surface. Unfortunately, the only taglines used for me have been similar to the above, but actually a bit harsher…
#Adulterer
#Whore
#Selfish
#Dirty
#Unlovable
#Liar
The other unfortunate part is that these are all true…
Thankfully God gave me a new tagline, His tagline! You cannot get one better…
I have lived in many different styles of residence throughout my life, including what I refer to as houses with wheels. I have mentioned in the past that I had issues with these, one of which was the utter freedom with which creepy crawlies could infiltrate my domicile. Thought of a funny example the other day, cause remember, I am currently living in a 32-foot RV. Call it a funny way for bringing back memories, but I was watching a livestream of my favorite gaming community, Neebs Gaming, and everyone in live chat started laughing about encountering spiders in the worst places. From there, my mind went spinning backward to approximately 10 years ago…
I remember it being summertime, due to the fact that the heat was the cause for all our doors and windows being ajar. My middle daughter and I had been out running errands, and I was the first to race to the bathroom! I lived with a teenager, so I mean race! I thought I had scored a big win as I sat down to do ma thang, but looking to the side for the toilet paper, I changed perspectives really quick! Resting in comfort, directly upon my needed paper, was the biggest Wolf spider I had met, and there had been many (for another story). I am not even going to attempt describing the absolute animalistic form I took while extracting myself from close proximity to the little demon. But I did make it to the bathroom door, just as my daughter arrived to investigate. Later she told me it sounded like the toilet had fallen through the floor (another story for later).
I came up with the brilliant idea for dispatching the offending predator. We were going to hit it with my running shoe from the doorway, that way there would be no one close enough to be eaten. It sounded like a plan for heroic success and my daughter fully supported me, as I was the one with the shoe, and she was safely behind me. The best way for me to explain it is to go play by play here…
I flung that running shoe with the expertise of a pro ball player, aiming directly for the roll of toilet paper, where the ravenous creature was planning our demise
Upon contact, both the running shoe… and the spider… came flying in slow motion back at us
We both screamed, tripped over each other, ran into the bathroom door, slamming ourselves into the same room with a man-eating demon intent on consuming us both…
Don’t be scared, it’s ok! We got out!
Needless to say, my husband came home to find a broken bathroom door, a child busy texting our near-death experience to her friends, and a wife sporting a small doorjamb impression on her cheek, with a tale to tell…
Believe it or not, this flower is actually a good three feet above my head! I would not have even noticed it, had I not paused for a moment to rest my aching back. I am not sure that I want to go as far as to say that I am glad I injured my back. But I can certainly appreciate the lessons gained from my recovery process. One of those lessons is that I need to slow down!
I learned to slow down both physically, as well as mentally. In the physical realm, too much of a good thing (walking) is never healthy without taking the time to make sure you are capable of pacing yourself. I am learning to slow my walking down, and also to take days off for a refuel. Selecting regular days to rest is something I have to force myself to do. Mentally, I think it is also very necessary to do the same thing…
Take a day off!?!
While realizing that it can be difficult, it’s so very necessary that we take a mental day off, once in a while! You know, shut the brain door… close the shutters to our internal house windows.
I hope you weren’t’ expecting me to expound on the mental day off, as there are too many self-help resources that have already saturated the market on this subject. Actually, I am not even going to spout anything useful in the physical activity department. I just like to “walk” you into an insight I’ve gained, rather than just throw it at you like a water balloon.
Beauty and goodness are all around us! Each and every day, the sun rises to reveal these things. It carries on toward darkness, til it’s replaced by the rising of the moon. Over and over, again and again, this happens. We’re given so many opportunities to see and experience all that God’s created just for our pleasure and enjoyment.
My insight, if you have not already figured it out, is this: Slow down, and take the time to LOOK UP!
Journey With Me! 