This week has really not gone the way I’d hoped. Not that I had big plans, but they sort of … disappeared or morphed, especially these last two days. For the record, I would have preferred if things had kept to my plans and I found myself annoyed that things had shifted. Granted, nothing catastrophic occurred and I'm thankful for that, but I still like a plan. 

In general, Monday through Wednesday behaved themselves decently. As a bonus, Monday was even a holiday, though it did mean that Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit more packed with things to do. They were long, hot days but they were manageable. But then along came Thursday and my best laid plans slide right off the page.

Some days, I have such a strong feeling of being the odd one out. For instance, in casual conversation the topic of music might come up. Growing up, I didn’t listen to the music of my peers very much. I ended up with an eclectic mix of music that spanned well before my birth to present day (think: Beethoven, to Simon & Garfunkel, to Hozier, and on…). 

Similarly, I didn’t watch many of the popular television shows and still do not manage to find the time to do that. I enjoy some sports but don’t really watch any or keep up with more than one team on a very loose basis. I hear things that other parents doing as something that “everyone” does for their kids, I do not find myself doing. 

Technically speaking, summer as a season does not end until September 22. But in an academic sense, we are rapidly approaching the end of summer as schools around our area start their fall lessons. Most of my own children will resume school next week and so it feels a bit like summer is coming to an end. 

We have children in middle and high school as well as college now. I wonder what they will learn this year. I am interested to see where they embrace a stretched horizon and where they might decide to let an existing one stand. As always, they surprise me and I am eager to see what will unfold in this year to come for them. 

I had to make a phone call the other day to a place of business to inquire about something. The conversation proceeded smoothly, I was given the information I needed and the person on the other end of the phone was very helpful. All in all – a fantastic interaction! Until right at the end when I ended the phone call in a moment of minor distraction and said, “Okay, love you, bye.” 

There might have been a minor record scratch in that moment as I couldn’t unsay these words that I typically say to people in my family. The person on the other end chuckled and said, “why thank you.” And I laughed and, only slightly mortified, ended the call after apologizing for the gaffe and offering my thanks. Whoops! It was just an autopilot moment and generally no harm was done (other than suffering mild embarrassment, which is thankfully not fatal). 

All my children are off at camp this week and it has left me with a little free time. While they’ve been gone, I’ve generally goofed off. But the other day, I did run across a long-neglected pile of papers.

It had been shoved in the laundry room likely in December since it had a few Christmas cards mixed in with other things. I recycled papers that should have been tossed a while ago, but I took the time to read the Christmas cards and admire the photos they contained. 

One card made me roll my eyes. It was from a friend I’ve mostly lost touch with other than via the annual Christmas card…

I remember reading that every seven to ten years, most of our cells have regenerated. Thankfully, not all at once, but over the course of that time, most of our cells die and we get a new cell in its place. There are lots of kinds of cells (red blood cells live pretty short lives compared to the ones that make up your bones) but in general, they all have a lifespan and are replaced. 

That got me thinking about different versions of myself. Clearly, my physical cells have regenerated in the 50+ years of my life, but my mental, emotional, and spiritual lives have evolved over that time as well. Old ideas and beliefs have slowly faded to be replaced with a newer version that holds for a while before it, too, is changed. I am both the same person and a different person than I was at any other given age. The version of me that existed in my teens or twenties still might linger in my memory, but I’m not that person exactly. 

The passage of time is such a curious thing to me. Some days it feels like the seconds take their time ticking by, while at other times, whole weeks or months fly by leaving me winded in their wake. 

This year marks a 20 year anniversary for me - 20 years of leading Vacation Bible School! I distinctly remember that first year in 2006, some of the mistakes I made, and some of the challenging kiddos we had. But I also remember the joy, the fun, the laughter, and even some of the songs! (Those songs are deceptively easy and exceedingly catchy!)

We just wrapped up this year's VBS today with about 80 children and volunteers on the church campus every day. The week went quickly, but not so fast that I forgot to savor a few sweet moments.

Yesterday was an “odds and ends” day. You know the kind of day where one thing after another pulls focus and you do sort of 20-30 minutes on any given thing that really needed about an hour. People, tasks, emails, phone calls – all of these have peppered my days. Thankfully, nothing terrible has cropped up, but each one required a little of my time. 

I don’t love these days, but I don’t mind them either. The variety of things keeps my interest, and the hours move along quickly. But I also never feel like I’ve gotten very much done (and we all know I love a good ‘to do’ list with checkboxes). I managed to get enough done, so it’ll have to do. 

As I write this, I wonder where God was in my day yesterday.

June has swung into view, and it brings us into summer which has a little pressure with it. The pressure is to do something, to enjoy the warmer weather, perhaps even to be more social since it’s “nice outside.” And as someone who spent a decade living in places where sunshine was not as plentiful, I fully understand that urge. 

But I ran across a few things this week that emphasized being present in the moments given to us instead of moving quickly through them and on to the next thing. I’ve given you one in its entirety just below – a Blessing for a Gentle Summer by Kate Bowler – because I think we can all use this kind of blessing these days. 

May used to be one of my favorite months of the year. Spring has come and warmed the earth and air but doesn’t contain the rather more uncomfortable hot temperatures that the summer will undoubtedly bring. 

On some level I still love May, but now it comes with all sorts of “end of the school year” things – concerts, performances, awards, and on and on. Mind you, these are nearly universally delightful things but there are many of them and I tire of them at a certain point. 

Couple all of those extra things that pile into May with the usual run of the mill tasks, errands and activities and it ends up feeling like a treadmill that someone adjusted to 10/10 for me. Even now, I hear the siren call of the grocery store. I’d resist it, but we do still need to eat so I’ll try to squeeze that in between leaving work and picking up the first kid to be done with her school day. 

The other day as I was driving around town, I noticed a large pick-up truck with a lot of lumber stacked in the bed. There appeared to be the usual standard sizes of wood, but there was also a piece that looked somewhat triangular. How curious, I thought, and I wondered what might be built with this wood. 

Later that week, I found myself in a waiting room. After checking in for this appointment, I sat to listen for my name to be called and my eye was drawn to a flash of plastic and thread in the hands of the woman sitting near me. The thread appeared to be fine and the plastic piece she worked with was an odd shape. Curiosity overtook me and I asked what she was doing and what she was making. She told me she was tatting and making lace. I admired her lace and her creativity. She laughed and said it kept her hands busy and helped to pass the time. All the same, I marveled at her creativity. 

It’s Tuesday morning and it is way too early for me to be awake. But my brain has not heeded my silent request to go back to sleep. Instead, it has clicked on for the day and started to think thoughts. I know this is the end of my sleep so I quietly get up, head downstairs, and wonder how tired I will be later. 

After my faithful coffee maker has delivered a hot beverage to me and I am sitting in a chair, I notice that the light changes near the stairwell. There is movement there, and a sleepy 11-year-old girl in her fuzzy robe enters the dim room with me. I put down my coffee, and she comes over to curl up in my lap. She can’t exactly curl up on my lap, though, because she’s only maybe six or eight inches shorter than I am now, so, she sort of squishes next to me in the recliner.