Just the Facts Ma'am

I want to be one of those people who can create an interesting story, with perhaps even spiritual significance, out of just a few facts. But I'm usually not. The other day I was walking my friend out to her car, with Lucy on my hip, and the sandals I had hastily thrown on were causing me great pain. There must have been a piece of glass, or possibly a scalpel, perhaps a small animal was biting me? I limped back to my house, putting pressure only on my heel, half worried of what kind of bleeding mess I would find on my foot when I got back upstairs. I put Lucy down, and looked at the bottom of my foot to find the TINIEST little splinter half in/half out of my foot. I'm surprised I could even grab hold of it with my fat fingers. Seriously....that was what was causing all that pain? This would make a good blog post I thought. There's got to be a great lesson here...something about a mountain out of a molehill...or maybe taking the plank out of my own eye before removing the splinter out of my sister's eye...But that's as far as it goes. You'll have to figure out your own spiritual lesson!

Then today, at a small table, eating terrible food at an over-crowded outlet mall food court, two women sitting near us were summarizing their purchases from the nearby Coach store. (Fancy purses and bags). Their conversation seemed so shallow, and I was priding myself that I carry an REI backpack around with all of my and Lucy's needs. Surely I could write a deep and meaningful "blog" about such things. But then I thought: "What if this is the first break these women have had from a burden-ful life, and a little bit of purse buying is the exact therapy they need to face another day?". I doubt it, they didn't look "hardened by life". But still, who am I to judge? See, no story there.

More than anything though, I want to have learned "stuff" about life as I'm teaching Lucy. We learn from each other...especially obvious now that she makes that grunting noise that I make when I'm frustrated with something. We call it her cookie monster voice; it's cute at first, but getting kind of annoying as now it is attaching itself to little tantrums and flailings. No, not MY perfect angel! She can go from "the cutest baby in the world" to "little devil child" back to "darling beauty" in the blink of an eye!! I can hear her even now, yelling at her dad or her toys in that growly voice as I hide away for a short respite. I wonder if she just wants to speak her mind, and like me is frustrated that she doesn't exactly know how to spit it out??

Don't worry little one. You are just 11 days shy of that magical one year birthday; the first of many birthdays to come, I pray, that will bring joy, celebration, challenges, love, triumphs, new skills. You'll be chattering away soon enough, and we'll have lots of things to talk about. Sometimes God will reveal a beautiful picture that brings together all the pieces that seemed un-related; sometimes it will be "just the facts, ma'am." It doesn't matter, as long as we keep talking, keep LISTENING, we'll do just fine!