A Moment in My Life – Wednesday, November 11, 2020
When your day and your week go smoothly, and it feels like it’s too good to be true, it is. You never know when the other shoe will drop. That’s what happened to me this past week. For a change, which was rare, everything seemed to fall smoothly into place. I was walking on eggshells because it felt like it was too good to be true. In the past, as soon as my day started to feel like it was going to be peaceful and smooth and I would finally get to do what I wanted to do that day, the other shoe would drop, canceling out any hope of things going my way.
After a week or so of having each day fall smoothly and peacefully into place, allowing me to check off one task after another on my quotidian planner list, I began to relax and let it fall into place. I enjoyed having nothing to trouble my mind with and get things done according to my plan. Like I said, if it felt like it is too good to be true, it probably is.
I had just settled down to take the evening off on Saturday when my cousin’s wife called to check in with me. That was nice and thoughtful of her. We talked for about two hours catching each other up on our Pandemic lives. I had just told her that I have been busy getting my writing career going, which usually answered the question of “work” for most people, but not for her. Next thing I knew, she dropped the one-liner bomb with “Have you started looking for a job yet?” Whoa! What? Where did that come from? Her rationale was that I needed to get a job to keep busy and give me something to do. Seriously? What part of “I’ve been busy” did she not get? Besides that, her bomb lingered with me for days and began troubling me. All things being the same as before she dropped the bomb on me, but suddenly she had me wondering about my financial future, and I began worrying about my finances. I was content and at peace until that bomb dropped, shattering my serenity.
I prayed for peace and guidance and began feeling more centered until yesterday when I called my father-in-law, which I do daily in my attempt to bring him some cheer. Dad suffers from a mild case of dementia, and our conversations are usually small talk with a sprinkle from his past that I attempt to remind him of his life and the people in it. Since I call him daily, he recognizes me as the person who calls him but not really that I am his daughter-in-law. That’s okay. My goal is to perk him up for a moment each day and help him exercise his faculties. He loves it when I remind him that if he doesn’t use it, he would lose it. He thinks I’m funny and a genius. Hilarious! Yesterday, the conversation turned from light small-talk very quickly to a heavy one-liner bomb when he asked me if he could move in with me! He thinks that he’s living at the assisted living home free because he has no money, and that any day, they would tire of caring for him and throw him out. I spent the call reassuring him that he has plenty of money, and he’s paying for his stay and keep. He felt the complete opposite by the end of the call, which I’m glad, but boy, I tell you, this chat weighed me down.
Before that conversation was history, a friend texted me, alerting me to the news that our pastor had just resigned effective immediately. Whoa! Where did that come from? Did I need another one-liner bomb? It’s these one-liner bombs that throw a curveball into my otherwise lovely day. I know. Challenges help us grow, but I wouldn’t mind if I had smooth sailing every day. Some people love a challenge. Good for them. They can have mine. I really could do without those pesky one-liner bombs.
