So I’ll Bet You’re Glad to Have a Break..

I was worried about making the shift from full time asphalt warrior student to being home for the next three weeks. I had visions of relaxing and puttering in the yard and garden. My family has visions of all the things I am to do before I start CPE. I bravely contemplated polishing off the endorsement essay while I am still feeling academic.

So here is how has really started. Buddy the Beagle started throwing up grass on Wednesday night. Thursday morning as I was leaving for my last spring term class and picnic, he was still not doing well. I put the dog and the water bowl in the crate. I came home and he was disoriented. I carried him upstairs and went to look for the leash to take him out, when from the living room I hear violent wretching sounds. Exhibit A was now on the living room rug, in all its putrescence. But what was it? As I set about using paper towels and plastic bags, I read "JOE BOXER." Buddy, ever on the prowl for any snack, had eaten a pair of underwear and some pencil shavings and who knows what else. So I thought he would feel relieved, if tired. He would drink some water and feel a little better. Such was not the case, in fact the opposite was true. So I called the animal hospital and off my husband went with the beagle while I did the laundry of the Band shirt needed for Friday's performance by LC #2.

It, whatever it was, was some obstruction, involving X-rays and a stay at the vet hospital. On Friday we waited all morning for the call. Finally we needed to leave to go to LTSG for the eucharist service where I was in the choir. Just before the Great Thanksgiving, the call came that Buddy was doing better but needed to get his functions back in working order. He needed to stay until Saturday and we would hear more then. Surgery, once a real option, was now less likely.

In the midst of Saturday was a guitar lesson, and a homework project needing poster board. And I needed to get the garden plants in before the rain. Then we learned, there was an orchestra concert that night. No one even told us they had joined the orchestra. So one parent went to the concert. And one parent picked up the Beagle.

Sunday was dinner with my mother-in-law and two teenagers who swore there was nothing on the menu they would eat. There was and they did. Then a long conversation with my parents in FLA where I got the full medical update on all of their friends. And a request to go shopping for a dress for the dance, followed by a "never mind I have a performance in DC for Jazz Band- but Mom I need to be at the school at 5:45 am and I need white sneakers."

And there was a dentist appointment today, and the grocery store and the produce stand, and then I looked at the house and wondered when the last time I REALLY cleaned was. And "Mom when you take me to flute can you get me highlighting stuff for my hair?" "Did you remember you wanted to order the stuff for my 16^th birthday party before you start at the hospital?"

The dog needs medicated dog food, Metamucil and his antibiotic three times a day, and he must be monitored in the yard. And it is time to set up the screened in porch for the summer. My Beloved thinks I should fix the garden fence and mulch the beds, and…

It is wonderful to be home. Really home, not the superficial, just here to do school work and sleep thing. And I can do morning prayer in the Florida room and see my purple house finches, and goldfinches and the flicker. And I might get that essay done. I think of all of those who are missing their loved ones, or whose homes have been torn asunder by natural disaster or conflict. There is so much to thank God for, including the restored health of an incorrigible beagle, and the fact that no one had written "DUST ME" on the coffee table yet.

Lord, we give you thanks for the myriad of simple pleasures you create for us. Help us to slow down and savor them. Guide us as we love and care for those in our midst. May we never tire of praising you for our blessings. Amen.