Getting it together, forgetting where it is

It is another day. The sun rose brilliantly and the rays that crept into my bedroom and poured light on my sleeping head are warm and inviting. I would not get up to respond except the alarm will, in a minute or two, make an awful sound that will be much less pleasant so I do. I find that if it has to be a Monday, a sunny Monday makes life so much better and I give thanks. I am trying to do that more, say thank you.


I am organizing. I am organizing thought and work and filing and arrangements and people and ministry and time. I am trying very hard to remember to be flexible, to have back up plans, to allow for unexpected agenda items, leave room for the Spirit to move. I am practicing kindness, goodness gentleness and practicing and practicing and practicing. Surely with all this practice I must be getting good at it. I am not quite confident since I keep practicing things like not saying everything I think, smiling bigger and nodding politely to the outrageous things people say, and yet I am still awfully wobbly at this. Just the moment I once again say something I shouldn't say I think....oh dear I just did it again. Okay, every once in a while I think: YES! I did it again and in a minute I will be sorry but right now it's all touchdown dance. See my problem? I do too, but I find I am stuck with me.


So here is the issue. What if I succeed? What if I truly get it all together and then, like with so many other things I own, I put it in a very safe place? This is a reason to be concerned. I have this feeling that I may have more children than I remember, having put them in the safe place. I know I always planned to have more.... I guess you could safely say about my safe places that they are very, very safe. Who could find them? Certainly not me.

I will say I do have one excellent memory gift. I know where all my friends safe places are. They do not and I frequently have to say, now wait that's under your bed or in the storage building or you gave that to me last year and you can't have it back. This is only a little handy and would work out better if I was smart enough to entrust the location of my safe places to others. I would you see, but then they wouldn't be safe anymore. I don't have one single thing other than my kiddies things like pictures and papers and Popsicle stick frames that I really am all that hung up on, so what on earth am I keeping safe. I can tell you right now it's not important papers like wills and so on. I haven't seen them for years.

I have a new plan, I am just going to focus on getting it together and then leaving it lay around. Someone will pick it up for me and keep it safe. If only they will put it in one of their safe places.