Waiting for the Key

This is what happens when a hard freeze follows rain which fell on 6 inches of snow.
It is so treacherous, I have to wear crampons to get to the chicken coop.

You may wonder what that title refers to, (or, in better grammar, you may wonder to what that title refers..... no dangling participles!)

I fill in on occasion for a friend at a local community center.
I worked today and then came home, only to discover that an event was taking place at the center tonight, and I would be needed to go back and unlock the building for them. This was all rather last minute,  and when I rushed back over there, folks were standing in the dark parking lot, anxious, wondering, worried. Locked out, waiting for the key.

I got to thinking this is very much like life.

Much of the time we are milling around in the dark, full of uncertainty.  There is something good just through the door, but we dont have the key.  We think if only we could get in, everything will be fine and good.

The "big bliss" beyond the door is just out of our reach. We are waiting for the key.

I think, "we have to get the homestead completely functional... then everything will be good."  That's the "big bliss"in my mind.
Maybe for you it is, "when the kids start school, and I have more time"or maybe "when I get that promotion" or new car, or bigger house, or get married, or run a personal  best in a marathon, or whatever. We tend to think that the good stuff is "out there" somewhere, and if we only could get there, we would be happy.  But we huddle in our everyday humdrum, waiting for a miraculous intervention to transport us to happiness.

We forget that life is what happens while we are milling around in the parking lot, hoping for something better.  The big bliss is embracing just being there.  The key is being present in the here and now, taking each moment for what it is... living it, facing its challenges, hardships, joys, and miracles.

I have to tell you, the event tonight was a poetry reading, and I was feeling all poetic and was sorely tempted to compose a verse about all this. But then, lucky for you, I didnt.

So, today, I am glad to be in this drafty, rickety old farmhouse with the man I dearly love, and two useless, but loveable mutts.  Peeling wallpaper, I embrace you. Falling down shed, you will last another year or two if you have to. Garden full of weeds- you are a work in progress.   There, I feel better already...

Weather: chilly, but sunny. I think it was in the teens this morning.
Wildlife:i looked for the duck again today, but didnt see her.  I watched the birds at the feeder, noticing how each behaves. The chickadees grab a seed, fly off with it, and hold it between their toes and crack it with their beaks. The jays hop around on the snow and swallow the seeds whole. The finches sit on the feeder and grind the seeds into pieces, which are then eaten by the mole....
Training: resting a sore knee today. Supposed to run a race in the morning....

Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you".