Amid the Rushing

Thursday morning didn’t start out smoothly. When I turned on the coffee pot, even though we woke up earlier than the day before, in an effort to get more coffee, while getting ready for work, juice got spilled. Not one glass, but two. Apologies were made and readily accepted. It was an accident, after all.

My daughter woke up late, desperately needing java. With 20 minutes to get ready for school, she made quesadillas for lunch and applied ointment to iron burns (don’t ask) looking very put-together.
Twelve cups of coffee brewed this morning. Thinking I’m going to merge with all the rushing, I pour a cup.
But there isn’t a whole cup. Right then, I tell the Lord I’m thankful for my family. I truly mean it with all my heart.

Right now in the next city over, a widow I talked to yesterday wakes up wondering if she wants to make a full pot of coffee, or if she’ll even bother making breakfast. Her grown kids are gone and she’s packing up her belongings in her too-big-for-one dream home that she and her late husband built together and shared their lives in.

 Shortly after that, my daughter's ride pulls in. I’m grateful for spilled juice and the coffee- swilling teenager freaking out about time and failed alarms. I love her dearly. I realize that in a moment it could all disappear. I'll take the good with the less than good and hang onto these lovely people as long as I can.

I fire up a half pot of decaf and when I turn around, I'm alone for the day. My half-cup of coffee and I go to my home-office where the radio plays.
A song that rarely airs on our local station begins just as I enter. Jim Brickman’s The Love of My Life with Michael W. Smith singing. 
It makes my heart happy to hear it, because the very first time I heard it I cried in an empty living room far from friends, my daughter was away and singlehood had recently snatched me out of a 12 year marriage.

I sit down for a moment reflecting on how different my life is, and the changes I prayed for that the Lord brought. The song is like a touchstone between us, reminding me that He still thinks of me, blesses me and helps me take time to remember what’s really important.~