dual personalities

Well, we had quite a three-day weekend–lots of drama and some severe weather thrown in for good measure.

The OM and I drove over to Jeff City on Friday where we bought a new car. We have a habit of thinking about a thing for two years and then, on what appears to be the spur of the moment, doing something big. This is what happened once again this week. Inspired by the video daughter #1 produced about the Riley Brothers car dealership in JC (the ones who sustained huge damage two years ago in the JC tornado), the OM finally made a decision re replacing his old Honda Accord.

While he dealt with finalizing and picking up the car, I went home with daughter #1 to her apartment and tried to put together a new bed which had been delivered that morning. We also talked for several hours about the pros and cons of a big job offer she got. This was a lot of drama for one day. I won’t go into the details, but we finally threw our hands up into the air, abandoned the bed unfinished, left her apartment in disarray, and drove home to St. Louis. The OM followed in his new car.

That night we drank two bottles of wine, listened to music and discussed more pros and cons of the job offer. Then we slept through a huge storm in which 60-70 mph winds downed big trees and power lines and left us without electricity.

(The steeple was blown off this 150 year old church (STL PD photo)–Zut alors!)

We wanted the wee twins to come over the next day and help us pick up sticks and other detritus in our yard, but they had to go to a birthday party, so we had to do it ourselves.

The boy and his famille came over after the party to check out the OM’s new car.

The wee laddie said, “Pappy has a cool Caddy!” and set his seal of approval. (My “Cooper” is still his favorite.)

We ate a late lunch from Chick fil-A by candlelight.

After they went home, daughter #1 and I headed over to Club Taco to hang out on the patio…

The OM texted us when the electricity came back on (17 hours later) and we went home with a big sigh of relief.

After church on Sunday morning, daughter #1 headed home to put her chaotic apartment back in order. I caught up on the phone with my DP and daughter #2 and then the OM and I took a ride through Lone Elk Park. We saw this raccoon and her three kits…

…and a few lazy elk, but not much was going on there. Then I watched some PGA on TV and settled in for the evening, grateful for electricity, fair weather, family, and friends.

“I SHALL NOT WANT,” the psalm says. Is that true? There are lots of things we go on wanting, go on lacking, whether we believe in God or not. They are not just material things like a new roof or a better paying job, but things like good health, things like happiness for our children, things like being understood and appreciated, like relief from pain, like some measure of inner peace not just for ourselves but for the people we love and for whom we pray. Believers and unbelievers alike we go on wanting plenty our whole lives through. We long for what never seems to come. We pray for what never seems to be clearly given. But when the psalm says “I shall not want,” maybe it is speaking the utter truth anyhow. Maybe it means that if we keep our eyes open, if we keep our hearts and lives open, we will at least never be in want of the one thing we want more than anything else. Maybe it means that whatever else is withheld, the shepherd never withholds himself, and he is what we want more than anything else. 

–Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry

*Sandra McCracken