This is another haiku dredged up from the recesses of my notebook, but this one I rather like. I was actually surprised to find that I haven’t already posted it.
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tears pour down my face
flooding my arms
warm hand on my headÂ
Sunday afternoon Samuel L. and Elsie came over to retrieve a Lansberry coffee carafe and a soon to be Lansberry bag of tortilla chips. I was very touched by Samuel’s gentlemanly gesture when he asked Elsie what she wanted to carry. At first she couldn’t decide, but then she said, “Oh, I’ll just take this” and reached for the coffee carafe. In a very Samuel sort of way Samuel L. jerked the coffee carafe out of her reached and thrust the chips at her. “No, that’s heavier. Take these.” I felt so proud of him. Elsie took the chips and they bounced out of the house together.
 Last night was dinner at Lansberry’s. In case I haven’t mentioned it we moved dinner to Wednesdays. If I have mentioned it’s still moved. We ate a rice-spinach-cheese casserole with your choice of cheddar or feta cheese and really good fresh bread from Great Harvest Bread. Garlic-cheddar bread. Mmmmmm.
During dinner we did One Good Thing and the only one I remember clearly didn’t happen. Theresa said that she could mention something about some undergarments she discovered earlier that day, but as the undergarments did not belong to her she would shield the identity of the owner and say something else for her One Good Thing. I found this highly amusing.
For Family Worship we sang a few hymns. Samuel Lansberry was down at the other end of the table with Samuel Ben-Ezra. There was a hymn Little Samuel didn’t know and so Big Samuel would read a line ahead of us out loud so Little Samuel could sing along. This was not the first time he’d done that for Little Samuel and I’ve found it charming both times. I love watching these children take care of each other or at least give it their best try. Sometimes the attempts work better than others, but they have mostly the right idea.
Noah fell apart earlier than normal which was fine because Seth was starting to fade as well. He took Noah and Justice home and Crystal and I followed with the rest of the children a few minutes later. I went back to the Lansberry house and watched the African Queen with Raquel which I was not expecting to like, but did anyway. Then we decided to be irresponsible and we stayed up and watched another movie, though it wasn’t that late when I went home. All-in-all a very pleasant evening. Â
Yes, this is still part of my old mediocre haiku run, but this set is somewhat amusing.
tangled cables
manual of gibberish
Help!
cables straightened
computer hums–
thank you
One hundred seven miles
to Indianapolis–
just the beginningÂ
 I might say that it’s not every day I walk past someone wearing sunglasses and a cowboy hat and holding a lightsaber. But around here that might be an everyday occurence. It was the red vest that was new.
Raquel is my friend. James and Theresa are also my friends. Sometimes being my friend, or any one’s for that matter, means caring about stuff that really shouldn’t be a big deal. But for some reason this thing is a big deal to your friend and so then it’s a big deal for you. Thursday night my friends sat down to watch a movie with me that has been a big deal in my life for many years for what feels like silly reasons. I felt really silly about it, but they weren’t acting like I was being silly and that made me feel loved.
There is a movie called The Mummy. For many years this movie was firmly implanted in my head as a very evil movie mostly because of when I watched it. Or I should say when I started watching it. I only made it about half an hour in.
I was about fourteen and my sister and I got a call from our friends asking us if we wanted to go see this movie with them. We didn’t know anything about it, but we liked hanging out with these people so we said yes, we’d love to go. My father wasn’t sure he liked this plan, but he said we could go anyway. Right before we left he told us that he wanted us to remember what the Bible said about everything lovely and pure and that we should think on these things. So we went to this movie and we’re sitting there and I was getting seriously creeped out and my sister was just not enjoying it. She didn’t see anything lovely on the screen. It got to the part were one of the minor characters lost his glasses and is getting stalked by the mummy almost completely blind. I don’t remember who’s idea it was, but at this point Adiel and I got up and left. We spent the rest of the movie walking around the movie theater talking about stuff and watching people go in and out of the bathroom. When the movie was over we found out that many of the friends we had come with were mad at us for leaving. They thought we were being all holier-than-thou and they were seriously offended. There was something else that happened that made for a very uncomfortable drive home. Someone was whispering about us in the backseat and it wasn’t anything complementary. This movie was the beginning of the end for these relationships. A couple of months later we had severed all ties with these people and I’ve bumped into them once or twice since then and not enjoyed it.
Now, I know that there were problems before we went out to watch a movie. That is very obvious to me now. But at the time it felt like there was this movie that broke the group. And ever since then whenever someone has mentioned The Mummy I get this reaction that had very little to do with the movie. I don’t remember what exactly sparked the conversation, but Wednesday night Raquel and I were talking about it and I realized I needed to deal with this. So Thursday night Raquel, the Lansberrys and I sat down and watched The Mummy. Originally it was just going to be Raquel and I, but James said that they would add extra moral support and watch it with us. Theresa, Raquel and I managed to keep up a running commentary especially during the creepy bits that made the creepy bits less creepy and the funny bits more funny. That made me feel really loved.
Sometimes God requires us to do really odd things for Him. And sometimes He requires us to do really odd things for other people. I hope that if ever there is a really odd thing I could do to help a friend I will be ready for it. Sometimes it’s the big things and sometimes it’s the little things and sometimes it’s just the odd things that really show someone you care. Â
Yesterday was very much a day of small things. Small pleasures in small errands that had to be run and small pleasantries with various people. Small irritations I couldn’t figure out and small miracles.
Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Raquel. Kathey had called them and asked if someone could come over. Her granddaughter’s glasses had been broken by a little kid she was playing with and Kathey was afraid she would get into big trouble when she went home. Raquel has never dealt with glasses before and Theresa was lying down. Could I go? Sure, I’ve worn glasses since I was about seven and I’ve broken them more times than I can remember. So I walked over and sat down at Kathey’s table with the glasses. The word Kathey used was “crinkled”. One of the lenses was out and frame wasn’t just bent out of shape it was smooshed. There was a particular little bend I didn’t think I could do anything with. As I sat there doing my best to bend them back into shape without breaking them I started to pray. I’ve met this little girl’s father and I wouldn’t want him mad at me for anything much less something not my fault. And Kathey’s granddaughter is just six. So I started praying that God would help me fix the glasses. As I prayed I worked at that little spot and to my surprise it started to bend back. Soon I could put the lens back in and then we heard a glorious click. The lens popped back in and there was just a little straightening to do. Kathey said, “Thank You, God.”
I have worn glasses since I was about seven and I have broken them in a multitude of different ways and I’ve had to help Arianna with her glasses several times so I think I’m well within my rights to say I should not have been able to fix those frames. If anything I should have broken them more while I was trying to fix them. But God was good to me and to Kathey and her granddaughter. It was a lovely reminder that He is not just in the whirlwind, but the gentle breeze also.
Thank You, God, for caring about things we don’t expect You to. Thank you for Your beautiful care of me and Kathey and her granddaughter.
We generally get a fair number of spam comments coming through moderation, but lately I’ve been amused by several of them, and decided to share my amusement.
Perhaps I’m the only one who finds any interest in this; I was also the one who listened intently to the message from a telemarketer who truly sounded like an old friend who just happened to be trying to sell us a satellite dish. I must admit that the spammers are not nearly as good as the telemarketer. (Go back and read that sentence again. Really, no one should ever have to make that statement.)
 Here’s a sampling of spammer attempts to sound friendly and engaging:Â
“Your site has very much liked me. I shall necessarily tell about him to the friends.”
Our site likes spammers? I’m very glad for this information, and I shall try to keep it in line in the future.
Or:
“Anything superfluous, all is laconic and beautiful.”
Can you have a laconic blog? And if you did wouldn’t it be very boring?
This is my personal favorite:
“Now I don’t have to intimated by science!”
Intimated? Yes, folks, that’s what we’re here for–to keep science from dropping hints! And to know that this goal has been fulfillled… I’m getting all choked up just thinking about it. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go have a good cry–or maybe I’ll just set up some more spam filters.
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