Sometimes All the Stupid Things...

Sometimes all the stupid things that go wrong become kind of a comedy. Or a tragedy. Or maybe a melodrama.

It's just so discouragingly "normal" that the trailer we waited for months to be made finally came home today and immediately has to be re-built in our drive because of all the things that weren't done right. Never mind the fact that it needs to be packed tomorrow and pulled out on safari the following day. Just never you mind that.

Tension was up at our house today as we played catch up on preparations to take a team from the U.S. out into Maasai. We've been pacing it all pretty well, but we made a last minute trip to Kenya on Wednesday/Thursday. Looking over the schedule for the next few weeks, we realized Colin's rugby game on Wednesday might be the only one we can get to. (Reminder: he's at boarding school 7 hours away.) TREVOR, sweet second-born, just arrived last Sunday night and he had never even been up to Colin's school. We grabbed the chance, jumped in the car and made a run for it. Then we grabbed Colin and brought him home a day early for midterm. It was great.

But that just meant that we had to do 2 days of work today and we'll need to do 2 more tomorrow. It's not so bad, really. I shouldn't complain... And I have to admit that I thought we navigated the stress quite well, all things considered.

And yet, as I climbed into bed, I was more aware of the stupid things than I was of any of the things that were good.

Two things happened to change that. Jesse sent a little note and asked me if I had seen that you can go on line and pre-order my book, Approaching God. I had no idea so when I saw my wee book on Amazon, I had a little moment. I just sort of gazed at it and thought, "It must be true, then. This book is going to be published."

Then Trevor stuck his head in the door to say good night and reported that he'd just received a note from Jesse saying he had dropped off one of his hand-made drums at a music shop in Santa Barbara. While in there, he noticed that 2 older cajons he'd crafted had sold, which pleased him. But that wasn't all. It was Jack Johnson who bought them. Jack! Trevor had other news from Jesse--just random stuff about a great evening he had with friends at the Mumford and Sons show in LA. It was all cheery stuff that made me giggle.

A book. Some drums. Some funny things to laugh about. It all reminded me that the stupid things may be truly vexing, but the lovely things outweigh them. Now I blow out my candle and give this day a parting hug. It feels so much better than kicking it on its way out.