Doing Life

This week was busy--in the way that regularly scheduled life happened and other events happened and together it made the week fly by.  If there's any day that exemplified this, it was Wednesday.

Wednesday was rough.  Wednesday, we "did life" in the fullest sense of the word.  My mom was in town the night before and we shared a delightful dinner and crashed. Mom was in town to teach my class. It had been planned for months that she would come in and speak to my students about how to become a nurse and how to get hired as one once you get a degree.  If you believe in coincidence (which I do not) you would say it was quite the coincidence that of all the days I ended up needing to miss class, it was the one my mom "just so happened" to be scheduled to teach my class.  Since June.  So yeah, nice coincidence.  Or divine providence.

Anyway, I found out last weekend a dear friend of mine lost her mom to her battle with cancer.  She's the kind of friend you always feel is on your side and would do anything for you. And friend, she has done so many things for us (including being a huge support in our adoption). So it was an immediate response from both the hubs and myself that we would go to the funeral.  And since the only thing keeping me in town was my class and it was already covered, we solidified the plan: we would take a carload and head south.

For me, doing life is that mix of knowing that one days is never all happy or all sad.  Friends, hear me when I say Wednesday was such a sad day.  We celebrated the life of a wonderful, God-fearing woman. In full disclosure I have only met this woman twice. But I feel fully confident she was who I believe she was because I know the character of her daughter.  You cannot raise a woman with such conviction, such commitment to friendship and family, and such a fun, spirited personality if you don't have a bit of all of it in you.  And so we celebrated the relationship between mother and daughter that day. And grieved the awful disease that is cancer. And prayed for that day when the earth is restored and we can be the beings God intended us to be--without pain, sin, or destruction.  It was a funeral where the gospel was front and center and that was refreshing.

But when we left, we went from sad to remembering the joys of friendship.  We piled (five of us) back in our car at noon and decided we should find some sustenance before we headed back. Our choice: Lamberts: the home of the throwed roll. In fact, as I am trying to link to their site, I feel it is my duty to tell you it is throwedrolls.com.  I had never been there, but it is kind of a staple of the community down south.  They have giant portions and, yes, they throw rolls at your head.  Well, they would probably say at your hands.  But I am not a catcher, so it feels to me like they are being thrown at your head.  I had Hubs catch two but the friends at our table felt it was my duty to try and catch one on my own so they all started pointed at me until the kid at the roll cart started making the throwing motion toward me and I held my hands out and closed my eyes.  And missed.  But it landed on the table.  As he went to the next part of the restaurant, Roll Kid passed by and said "great job." Um, thanks, Roll Kid. I am really good at not catching things. And eating rolls.  We ate and laughed until we really couldn't do either any more. Then we piled back in the car and headed home.

We reached home in time for us to catch the shortest nap in history and head to church.  Funny thing--fourth graders don't care what the rest of your day looked like or how mentally exhausted you are.  They really want you to be fully committed to them.  And you know what? It was the best thing that could have happened to me.  Friends, those fourth graders I was so nervous to teach? They came back!! They not only came back--they came back remembering what we learned last week!!  They told me of the trinity and how John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  And I swelled at knowing that God knew what he was doing after all.  Just kidding. Sort of.  We spent two hours together, playing with sidewalk chalk, reading through Mark 2, and sharing the most honest and heartfelt prayer requests I've ever heard.  Their transparency amazes me.

And then I went home and crashed into the hard sleep of a person who lived a day to its fullest point.  Wednesday was tough. But it was food for my soul.  God reminded me that each stage is what it is.  And as long as we are on this earth, we will have pain.  And death.  And laughter. And friendship. And things to learn. And things to teach.  And life to live.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven."

I am so blessed to do life with so many beautiful people.