Waiting to fly

Do you think we should be compensated for waiting?

Should there be some kind of reward for showing patience?

I wondered about this today after leaving a Wendy's restaurant. I had ordered a chicken sandwich combo. I don't know what took them so long, but I didn't feel a rush, so I waited. ... and waited. Five more customers passed by me. The manager twice appeared and apologized that I was having to wait. The lady putting my order together also apologized for my wait.

I didn't keep track of the time, I was not in a hurry. I was hungry, but a few minutes wouldn't kill me. Finally, I was given my carry-out order, with another apology from the kind lady working behind the counter.

Then she said the strangest thing, I thought.

She said "Can I give you a Frosty, or some other dessert since you had to wait?"

"Oh...no, no, no thank you," I said as I turned to leave.

"Are you sure. We're sorry you had to wait," she replied.

"No, it's not a problem. Thank you... bye," I smiled, and I left.

That's when I started thinking about the reward for being patient.

When did we start having to reward people because they waited?

This makes it appear that waiting is a hardship at its worst, and inconvenience at its best.

When did we think that waiting was a negative action instead of a positive action?

It might have something to do with the place being a Fast Food Restaurant. We expect to walk in or drive in, place an order, and get it within seconds if not a minute or two, and most of the time it does work that way.

But often, there are new people who are being trained, which slows down service, or they may be short on staff on any particular day, which will slow down service, or the computers may not be working properly, or an employee isn't doing their job properly... any number of events can take place to make us have to wait a little longer.

I think we need practice waiting, and not just waiting and fuming and complaining to the person standing behind us or in front of us that service is slow, or the cashier is slow, or they need to open more lines... or whatever the probem is.

We need to practice waiting with peace in our hearts. And look around us at the other people, and notice who they are, what they are wearing, what kind of work they do.

Look out the window and notice the weather, the time of day, and while thinking about all the things we have to do with the rest of the day or the week, think also about how lucky and blessed we are to be standing in line in the first place.

How can I wait on the Lord if I cannot even wait a few minutes in a restaurant line or a grocery store line?

I want to fly and soar with the wings of an eagle... I look forward to that. I have done it before, I want to do it again.

But first, I have to learn how to wait with patience, love, and joy.

I wrote a book review!

Have you ever wanted to write a book review? I have, and I did write one at amazon.com for a book I had read recently.

Since March, I've been reading Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer books, and currently I'm on the last in the series of six volumes. If you go to the website by clicking on the link above, then scroll down to the customer book reviews, you'll find it. There a few others, and then there's mine.

I'm not boasting about it, but I did want some of my friends here to read it. Please come by and check it out.

I was anxious about doing it at first, but then I thought, why not? I did like the book, in fact, I enjoyed all the books in the series. Point of view (told from Tiger's perceptions about life, love, and religion), setting, humor, and character development and a sense of adventure combine with magic and mysticism to create the most intriguing sword fighting saga I've ever read.

I could almost believe the main characters are really the swords themselves if it weren't for the fact that during the entirety of one volume the sacred jivatmas, which seem to have a "mind and heart" of their own, are absent from the story altogether.

But I won't go into that, nor tell you which book they are missing from.

Although, if you are in a seeking mood, and just want to know, I think I gave that little piece away in a comment I wrote up at Natalie's Interface  about what book I'm reading for the summer.

Have you written a book review? Leave a comment for me so I can read it.

Would you like to write one? Just go to Amazon.com, find a book title that you would like to write about, click on the words Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers. (well, don't click on the words here to do it, but you click on the words at the amazon.com location). Yeah, okay... you knew that already.

Yeah, mine is amateurish in content, but it was a good first book review. I look forward to writing some others. Maybe I'll even attempt to write one for John's Ghost Brigades.

Someday... it's on the list of things I want to do this year.

You know, travel west to Oregon, illustrate a book, lose twenty-five pounds, and write a book review for Ghost Brigades at amazon.com.

Yes indeed, I need to broaden my horizons.

Fear of Thunder

Max and Misty couldn't be more different in their responses to thunder.

Misty is fearless as she runs toward the end of the deck. A first time observer might think in horror (or humor, depending upon your feeling about little dogs) that she is about to leap into eternity, as there is about twelve feet of free-falling space between the deck and the gravel ground below it. To my joy, she always comes to a stop when she reaches the railposts, and barks with a ferocity at the invisible intruder rumbling above the treetops. She loves the thunder, loves chasing it.

I imagine that to her it's a big squirrel running around amongst the upper branches of the trees, elusive as any of the Common Grey Squirrels in our area. She can catch a mouse, but has never caught a squirrel. She never gives up hope, though, that one day, she will bring one down. But that's another story.

Now Max, on the other hand, fears it. Long before we hear the sound of distant thunder, Max hears it. I wonder if he doesn't feel it as well.

While Misty is eagerly barking and leaping out the door to take chase, Max skulks quietly and quickly to the bathroom, his head and tail lowered, his ears flattened back against his head. He is our early warning system.

"There goes Max skulking to the bathroom... there must be a storm coming!"

There he will remain, laying on the floor, waiting for the sound to end. Tonight, I felt sorry for him. I put his bed on the floor for him. At first he didn't accept it, but after awhile, he sat down in it, then laid down. He looked more comfortable at least.

Tara of Peach Pages wrote about her own schnauzer's fear of thunder, Security in the Master's Arms. It's a very tender piece about how she takes care of her precious pet when it is afraid. She connects her dog's behavior to our own, to the trust we put in our Lord during a raging storm.

She writes about how we have atendency to hide from God when we know we have done something wrong. She closes with this:

"And it's when we leave our hiding places and leap into the Master's arms that we find peace."

I find her writing to be descriptive, touching, and out-reaching. If  you haven't visited Tara's blog, start today with this entry.

Midnight Walk Surprise

I was outside this morning at about 2 a.m., taking my dogs for a walk in the woods because one of them was having a rough night.

As I gazed at my feet, flashlight beam falling where it may, I saw what appeared to be a long skinny snake.

Quickly I aimed the light on the snake suspect while my brain tried to figure out what manner of critter I was looking at. It was not a snake, but two very elongated slugs, one following the other, end-to-end! I guessed together they measured nearly twelve inches long. I had never seen slugs this long before, nor a pair of slugs following each other.

I ran to get my camera while my dogs considered their favorite places to respond to nature's call, and returned to take several pictures. Realizing that the size of these slugs would not be truly represented without something to compare them to, I ran back in the house to get the ruler.

The only things I knew about slugs, before this encounter, was that they were related to snails or they were snails without shells, they were garden pests, they left a slimy trail that turned silvery when it dried on concrete, and that beer, salt, and various other products easily caused their demise.

I was disappointed that the damp duo did not demonstrate their full dimensions by the time I returned with the ruler. Perhaps I had annoyed them too much with all the camera flashes, manipulating the ruler around them as they continued to maneuver away from me. They seemed intent on following each other, and they appared to be moving relatively quickly, as far as slugs go. If I had known what their true intentions were, and had I known exactly what I was looking at, in other words, had I been informed or educated on these things, I would have pulled up a chair, and waited for the show to begin!

But I didn't know, and in that ignorance that we often refer to as bliss, I missed out on one of nature's most bizarre and beautiful ballets of sexual intimacy. C'mon, think from the slug's point of view!

It wasn't until after the sun came up, and after I did an AOL search that I learned the identity of the two slugs. They are Leopard slugs, quite common in these parts, though not native. They are also common in Australia, but not native. Apparently the slugs came over from Europe in the early days of colonization.

Here are two great pages to visit. This one is a video presented by BBC Science and Nature, Life in the Undergrowth. I hope you can see the video just by clicking on the link above because it is truly awesome. Just a few minutes of the bizarre and beautiful ballet of intimacy shared by the mating Leopard Slugs. The music accompanying the scene hints at mystery and magic. Warning: graphic video!

The other place to visit has some beautiful pictures of the Leopard Slug.

I don't have time to write more, but you can check out the two websites and find out in greater detail what I could have told in a few lines. I have to run to take care of some VBS matters. Please check out the video... it is amazing!

I didn't know they did that, like that! Did you?

I remember watching an octopus documentary on public TV, and was captured by the same delicate dancing of their mating manners.

What wonders we have in our own backyard.

Not an entry.

Technical difficulty here... I had made an entry, then lost it. Didn't know it got saved, so now I'm editing the one I had written to replace it. Pardon me.

Monday Morning Photo Shoot: Bug's Eye View

From By The Way:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: A Bug's Eye View

Let's get a little creative for this week's Photo Shoot:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Pretend you're a bug. Take a picture from that point of a view. You choose the bug: Fly, spider, bee, wasp, caterpillar, flea, a dung beetle which used to be Gregor Samsa, whatever. Just make sure you view the world from that point of view.

When I read this entry this afternoon, I thought, I can do this! I'm in between stages of the VBS project, and needed a little break so I scooped up my camera, erased all of Saturday's picnic pictures (I had already downloaded them on the computer), slid on my sandals, and headed for my favorite area, the backyard.

Steve and the dogs were already outside walking in the relatively cooler shade of the trees. The heat is heavy this week, and the breezes feel like they blew across a desert in Arizona before reaching us in North Carolina. A heavy and dry heat, which I would take any day to a heavy humid heat.

So I'm thinking, bug's eye view, hmmmm. My dogs are always checking out interesting things happening in the ground. The other day, they found a large black beetle, but the pictures I took that day are more from my point of view than a bug's. The bug was safe after they inspected and played with it awhile. It crawled away, protected by its shiny black armor.

Max has a strange habit. I haven't looked into what may be the cause of it. He pulls up little patches of grass, then scoops up some of the dirt as he pulls the grass up by the roots.

This is not a dog with nausea eating grass, then throwing up. He simply seems to find something that smells good, and clears the ground getting to it. The black dirt will cake his lower front teeth between the canine teeth and his gums. He has some pretty big fangs, but all the dirt is caught below his lip, and in between those lower front teeth.

I tried to take a picture of the teeth filled with dirt, but the dirt didn't show, and the photo was out of focus, so I didn't include it. Max did not like having me pull open his lower lip while I aimed the camera at his face. Anyone know what causes a dog to eat grassroots and dirt? It seems to be keeping his front teeth clean. I keep forgetting to ask the vet about it.

So here you see what that big black beetle might have seen when my curious puppies approached him. How scary that must be to see a giant's face and teeth and tongue coming at you like that.

Sudden Changes and Surprises

I wrote an entry just a few days ago about the unexpected surprises I find when I take a simple walk in the yard. Little did I know to what extent that analogy could be applied. Since yesterday, my heart and mind have been flip-flopped. I was crying yesterday, today I rejoice. Here's a quote from that entry:

"Sometimes things happen to you and around you when you seemingly do nothing to make them happen. When we can step away, we may retrace our steps to discover why we are where we are, and what we did to get there. There's a cause for every effect, and an effect for every cause.

...even in one's own backyard, things take place seemingly beyond our awareness. We forget our input that begins the process when we first planted a seed, or transplanted a bulb. We forget the life that already existed before we even set foot on the piece of land we come to call the homeplace."

I didn't specifically apply it then in the spiritual sense, but it could well have been.

Something happened Saturday that precipitated a change in the greater realm of my life, but in a real sense, the initial events that set the Change machine into motion began happening beyond my awareness, longer ago than yesterday.

The sadness Saturday was caused by the news that our pastor was going to be taken from us, and reassigned to another church.

The pastors in our church organization have what is called an itinerant position... that is, they are only guaranteed to be with our church for one year at a time, and every year thereafter their placement within the UMC is dependent upon their wanting to stay in that assignment, the congregation wanting them to stay in that assignment, and the greater need of another church. Every year, it comes up for review, like an evaluation. That's the way I understand it.

In this case, another church is in greater need of the skills and talents of our pastor than we are. He had only been with us for two years, and we just found out yesterday that another church is suddenly without a minister, but our pastor will be able to hold them together and build that church back up again. Pastors are sent where they are needed the most.

We know he can do it. He's been a fine pastor in our church, and we love him dearly. There wasn't a dry eye in the church this morning when the rest of the congregation learned of the news.

Sadness, disappointment, even some anger at the system itself that allows this to happen. Not everyone appreciates this organizational process, but it is what it is. I'm not going to rant about it. Just explaining the situation.

The congregation is not the only ones to feel the mixed emotions at such an announcement. The pastor and his wife are often left with a heart that is torn. On the one hand, I imagine, the pastor is grievous about leaving a home and family that he has come to love. On the other hand, there is the excitement of truly following the Lord's call, and going where he is called to go, knowing that where he goes, he will do something more, he will be using his skills and talents to their fullest.

One of our church leaders, Sunday morning, sensing that the anger felt by some may cause them to leave, spoke to us all about the need to understand that we were grieving, and so was another church who would be losing their minister because he would be coming to our church to replace the one that was taken from us. With tears in her eyes, she reminded us that our pastor is not our church. Our church will continue on no matter who is the pastor. We don't come to worship the pastor, we come to worship the Lord. She said we had to let him go.

Yesterday afternoon, after the initial shock had worn off, and we dried our eyes, and made some sense of the entire sudden change of events that is affecting the entire congregation, a small group of members met with the new minister and his wife. It is a formality in which we try to make the new pastor comfortable, and he tries to help us get to know him in an hour or so, to break the ice.

What a surprise for us! There was no ice to break after all. We listened to him speak about his faith walk, about his past experiences as aminister and educator/administrator, and about his wife and her work (EC teacher).

Those of us who heard his words at this first meeting felt an assurance that this was going to be a good move. This man is being called to our church, in the same way our pastor is being called to another. I could see the love for the Lord on his face, in his eyes, in the way he and his wife spoke in support of one another. I could tell by the responses and comments of those faithful leaders around me that they were feeling what I was feeling: he is going to be a great minister in our church. We are going to do great things together because he is very close to God. He will be a leader for us.

I know others won't warm up quite as quickly as I did, but I'm feeling positive that they will come to like him. A lot faster than they imagine they would.

So what began as sad news yesterday has become happy news for all of us involved: for the church who will recieve our pastor, and for us. I don't know where all this juggling ends, and I wouldn't want to be in the position to shift and transfer pastors from one church to another. But I will say, the people who have been in that position in the past have generally matched us up very well. We are asked to trust the people who do this, and we do, sometimes with a little less enthusiasm than at other times. 

This year of change is turning into a much greater change than I had anticipated, with surprises like the ones I've found in the yard. Things are happening that I did not set into motion, yet they are affecting me and others in a grand way. There is more to this remarkable story that I haven't told.

It will unfold soon.