As
I posted earlier in the month, after meeting some big writing deadlines, I’ve
been doing household chores, which are long overdue for attention.
After
I finished the middle attic, I set off to change a few closets around. Everything
in this house is like dominoes. If you move one thing, three other items also have
to change their geographic location. After emptying a couple of closets,
painting them, and taking loads to Goodwill, the Sparrows Nest and the dump, we
now have several closets perhaps worthy of “CLOSETS” magazine, the official
publication of the Association of Closet and Storage Professionals (Yes, there
really is a magazine like this!). Well, maybe not, but the closets are a lot
better than they were, and I don’t have to dig in a plastic storage bin to get
dressed anymore.
The
only thing is, in all that lifting, shoving, and juggling, I hurt my back.
After a few days, I felt some better, so then, I get the bright idea to strip
the wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom. I’d loved that toile when it was
first installed, but that was in the last century. I’ve stripped wallpaper
before, so I had no delusions about what I was in for. I also knew there was
two layers of wallpaper not one. But it was a small room, so how hard would it
be?
It
would be very hard, because whoever put the first layer of paper up did not
prep the wall, and upon removal, it stuck to the wallboard and decimated it.
And
I hurt my back again.
So,
I have about three feet of partially removed wallpaper, an aching back, and no
idea how I’m going to finish.
“Why
didn’t you leave well enough alone?” Jerry asked.
That
man sure likes to live dangerously.
So,
I’m sitting here at the computer, because I’ve had to suspend my long list of
projects, and I happen to look out at the birdbath and see a bunch, and I mean
a bunch of Cedar Waxwings, a Bluebird, a Robin, and several Cardinals queuing
up to bathe and drink. The Cedar Waxwings are newly arrived from points north,
and I don’t ever remember seeing this many in my yard before. The cats and I
are glued to the window, because we can’t take our eyes off these incredible
creatures, though I think the cats’ motives may be slightly different from
mine.
And
I’m reminded, even as the aromatic scent of the medicated patch on my back reaches my nostrils, that if it weren’t for my
injury, I probably wouldn’t be still enough to even notice my new guests.
I
wonder how often God tries to give us a gift, and we’re too busy to notice.
Maybe sometimes, he has to allow circumstances, which slow us down so we can
receive the beauty and grace he’s extending.
I’d
share a photo with you, but I was so smitten with the Waxwings I didn’t have
the presence of mind to grab my camera. And even if I had, I wouldn’t have been
able to move fast enough with my creaky back to capture them.
Maybe
soon.
“Be
cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens.
This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live” (IThessalonians 5:18 The Message).