What Goes Around

I went to the duck park today that is by our apartment.  I like to get out and walk a bit in the sunshine to get both exercise and vitamin D.  It is about a 15 minute walk from our apartment.  There is a pond with a small island of trees in the middle.  I enjoy watching the different birds.  And recently discovered that there are also turtles that live on the island. This time of year is when the little ones are born.  There have been geese babies and one set of ducklings.  The geese are interesting because they are all a week or two apart in age.  So there are babies, middle schoolers, and your awkward teens.  The teens are now getting their feathers and their wings are growing.  Soon they will learn to fly.  But for now they all just float around and waddle on the grass. The little ducks were out for a swim today without any parents.  Six baby ducks that are just a few weeks old were swimming around the pond.  ...

I went to a ladies retreat last week.  The topic of the retreat was on fear.  I didn't really feel I had a lot of fears.  My big one was worrying that my hair was falling out and how I would look bald.  But then came Sunday.  Nothing fearful happened on Sunday, I just remembered how Sundays use to be for me. In India I was fearful.  The roads scared me.  So driving to church on Sunday morning was sometimes too much for me.  I would skip church just so I didn't have to go in the car.  I was scared of road rage I guess.  I had seen angry people do some pretty crazy stuff.  I remember when I was driving and Micah was in the front seat and we saw a motorcycle get pushed off the road into a pile of bricks.  The motorcyclist was okay.  He got up and picked up a brick and charged for the car with his arm raised like he was going to smash the other driver with it.  I remember Micah slouching down in the seat as we watched ...

Recently I read the Bible story of Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.  I was thinking about the part where the people were grumbling about not having water and then God provided water through Moses hitting the rock.  And then not long after that (not sure how long in time it was, but in the Bible it was short) they complained about something else.  They kept saying that Moses brought them out of Egypt so that they would now die in the desert. The people complained about Moses but in reality they were complaining about God.  I started to think about myself.  I find myself complaining about how some people have hurt me and all the life changes it has brought.  We have had to move, change jobs, leave friends, and start over in a way all because of what happened.  I start blaming people for my predicament.  I say, “If they wouldn’t have done such and such we would still have the skate park.”  Or, “If they didn’t do that, Micah...

Neighbors know a lot about you even if you don’t know them very well.  I realized that by living next to some people recently.  We were close enough to jump to their window if we wanted (or so it seemed).  And since we were staying in the upstairs room and it is warm here, we often had our windows open. Some mornings we would hear their teen and preteen kids getting ready for school.  Not the good mornings.  On the good mornings we heard nothing.  On the mornings when it was harder to get the kids moving we heard it.  We would hear the preteen girl having a breakdown over things.  Her voice would carry through our window.  I would think, “Oh boy, she is having a hard morning.”  And then you would hear a parent responding back in a raised voice.  Never anything bad, but I also don’t think I ever heard anyone yell, “I love you!”  It’s just not something you yell in your house much I guess. We would hear when the kids ha...

This is our first Christmas in America many years.  It has been weird.  I can't believe how many presents people give and get.  And people seem to have gotten crazy with the yard decorations.  You can't say "Merry Christmas" without offending someone, and you can't not say "Merry Christmas" without offending someone else. I found myself sad this morning as I was thinking about how different this year was for my family.  We usually go to Christmas Eve service at our church and expect it to be a little odd at times.  That's what you get in a third world country.  The speaker system will do weird things or the electricity will blink on and off or the times we have to go through security checks to enter the service.  And then we usually would go out to dinner somewhere with some friends.  Finally we arrive home and move our mattresses out to the front room by the Christmas tree with the familiar ornaments and we watch Elf in our pajamas. ...

Sometimes you hear people tell stories of how God provided exactly what they wanted and they didn't even ask.  You know the stories, how someone won a car and it was the purple mustang that they had always dreamed of.  Well that isn't how God provided for us, but He still has provided what we need plus more. We were able to move to an apartment this week.  It is more expensive then we would like for a one bedroom and not in the exact location that I had hoped for, but it is our home now and I am thankful for it.  We already have it full of stuff too, which is surprising since six months ago we only had six suitcases worth of belongings.  But Steve's grandma is now in an assisted living place so she had to get rid of her stuff.  So we have all of grandma's stuff.  Not exactly my style, but again, I am very thankful for all of it. We have all the pots and pans and dinnerware and furniture and pictures for the wall.  We have a hair dryer, some j...

At work we now have to answer the phone, "Happy Holidays from BBB, this is Leslie, how can I help you."  Well yesterday when one of the employees answered the phone, the lady on the other end didn't like her saying "happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" so she started complaining about it.  The employee was caught off guard and said, "What?"  The lady said, "You heard what I said.  Repeat back to me what I said."  The employee was still confused as to what was going on and what the lady wanted.  That of course didn't help the situation and the lady was mad.  She asked what time we closed and sadly the employee didn't know because each night is different now that it is the "holidays".  They lady said, "You should know.  Why don't you know?  Let me speak to a manager."  The employee was in tears at this point and transferred her to a manager.  The manager listened to the complaint and told the e...