Rocket Surgeon: A person with less-than-stellar aptitude. A mixture of "rocket scientist" and "brain surgeon" This phrase describes a person who is neither.




Tuesday, November 30, 2010

When Life Gives you Rainclouds........

My husband sometimes says he feels like life is kicking him where it counts. Those aren't his words however, he's much more blunt than I.  And even though I don't own a set of "where it counts", I'm finding myself doubled over in pain. 

When my husband's life gets hard, I imagine a cartoon boy, his hands in his pockets, his head cast down, the sun is shining around him, but he has a dark, stormy rain cloud hanging over his head.  If he walks to the east, the rain cloud hovers above him.  When he turns to go to the west, the rain cloud moves with him.  Even as others sunbathe on the beach or run through meadows of wildflowers, he cannot escape his rain cloud.  He goes through life with a raincloud and no umbrella.  I think I must have seen this cartoon a long time ago and have recently dug it out of the file cabinets of my brain.

The last couple of months, the cartoon boy in my imagination has morphed into a cartoon woman.  A thirty-five year old woman to be precise.  One possibly on the verge of a mid-life crisis.  One with graying hair, a bad memory, and love of pound cake.  Whose name starts with an A and ends with a NGEL. 

My preacher says something like, "If you're not presently going through a storm of life, you're either coming out of one, or about to head into one." 

Tonight, in the midst of my whining and moaning and the poor pitiful me's of life, I took 2 ibuprofens to kill the pains of existence (I'm a real risk-taker, eh?) and decided to take a hot shower.  I dried off and my towel smelled so fresh and clean.  A simple pleasure.  I put on my night clothes and crawled under my covers at 7:15.  Another simple pleasure.   

I opened my Bible, and even though God didn't jump off the pages and scream profound revelations directly in my ear, I received peace and a bit of serenity.  Or perhaps the ibuprofens were kicking in. Har Har.

Then I read part of a memoir called "A Three Dog Life"  about a woman's struggles to make a different life after her husband receives a traumatic brain injury and loses his memory. 

And then I felt ashamed of myself. 

As I sit in my bed, under my covers, comfortable and safe and healthy,  I am reminded no matter how awful and bad I think my life gets, it's a walk in the park compared to others who have been dealt a far worse hand than I.  

I am reminded that no matter how heavy and dark my rain cloud appears, "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Matthew 5:45 

And I am reminded that rain allows for some beautiful harvests. How am I to grow and change and become a new creation without it?  "Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you."  Hosea 10:12

And I just wanted to share this with you.

Find your simple pleasures.

May God Bless You,
Angel










Simple pleasures

4 comments:

jolea said...

I love this and I love you....I'm praying for sunny days ahead...:)

Unknown said...

I'm so glad I subscribed to your blog. I don't have a way with words like you do. I really enjoyed reading this tonight and seems like we are living mirrored lives today. Keep writing, I'll keep reading. Thanks!

LeAnn Pigg(Beth Casas' sister)

Anonymous said...

Angel, you picked the right book to read while under your cloud, I knew that's what I needed when I got home from Mom's. read some scriptures and the next day put on some high heels to go get my hair done. I couldn't believe how much better I felt, or the fact that I was wearing high heels. I became a new person with just a few scriptures in Galations. It's amazing, God's Grace. love you Aunt Velta,
BTW loved the blog

Angel said...

Thanks Jolea.....Leann, I'm glad you subscribed to my blog too! Hoping your rainclouds go away. Aunt Velta, I am soooooo glad you are feeling better. Sometimes the simple pleasures change our outlook. We need to focus on the positive no matter how negative things get. Love you all!