i think some people are aliens, or should be

Please tell me in which universe it is socially acceptable to call someone you don't know at 7:15 in the morning? Because I missed that memo about it being okay in our universe.

This morning, at precisely 7:21 am, my phone starts ringing. I wake up and reach for my phone, thinking it must be Aaron, because Aaron has a habit of calling me when he wakes up, because he's fun that way. But then I look at the caller ID and it says, "1 Desconocido" and I'm all confused. (Okay, so I switched my phone to Spanish the other day. Long story.) I'm trying to figure out if I've set the alarm, or hit snooze, or what the deal is. Finally I wake up enough to realize that "desconocido" must mean "unknown." I panic, because the only "unknown" that calls me is work. But by this time I've already missed the call. Then the voicemail buzzes. I listen.

Amy, this is Archie in Security. Give me a call today please. I'm at 44789.

I freak out. SECURITY? WHAT HAVE I DONE?

So I call the number, and ask for Archie.
Archie speaking.
Yes Archie, this is Amy returning your call.
Oh, hi. Do you have a chainsaw?
What?
A chainsaw, do you have one?
What?
You're having a garage sale, aren't you?
(I had put the garage sale we're having Saturday into the want ads at work.)
Oh. Yes.
So are you selling a chainsaw?
No.
I thought you said you were moving from a house to a condo.
Yes.
And you don't have a chainsaw?
No.
Are you selling a weed eater?
No.
You don't have a weed eater?
No.
Alright. Well, I just need a chainsaw and a weed eater.
Yeah I don't have those.
Alright, thanks.
Click.

The worst part? When he left the voicemail, he marked it as URGENT.

extreme blog makeover

Okay, so it's not extreme, but yes...the blog has gotten a makeover. I was inspired this morning. It was (however fleeting, seeing as it IS still August) my first taste of fall. I was driving to work and the sky was as blue as blue can get, and it was seventy-three degrees. Windows rolled down, sun shining...I was smiling even in the rush hour traffic.

So I decided that if my soul is ready for the change, then my blog is too. A more muted orange and green to match the changing maple leaves, and that blue, well Jessica tells me that's the hot new color this fall. Welcome some autumn poetry to boot. And in my mind it's always autumn in Lake Wobegon, so Garrison Keillor gets the spotlight this season. They seem to have that laid-back attitude all year round, and we only muster it in the fall.

See, fall is when I come alive. Something about it–it's a relief, it's an awakening, it's a time of rest. It's the time of year when you spend your weekends finding piles of leaves to jump into, seeking out apple festivals, and building campfires. You can still wear flip-flops, but might need a polarfleece at night. Mornings are cold and crisp and alive. In the afternoon the sun warms your back. People are kinder to one another even if they don't notice it.

Last fall on the first weekend of October, Sean and I went to Weston for the annual apple festival. All we did was wander in and out of some junk stores, taste some wine, and sit on bales of hay eating caramel apples and funnel cake. We were also mistaken for being engaged, but that is beside the point. Then we came home and went to Antioch Park and built a fire and made s'mores.

And it was a perfect day.

Here's to autumn, the sabbath of the year. May Fall 2005 be exactly that.

i have a stress-induced concussion

Thank you all for your kind words. Although, next time, would someone please hit me over the head with a frying pan? Last night I was still lamenting all the decisions that I need to be making, and Caley said, "Just pray."

I looked at her like she'd just won the lottery. I started laughing, even, because...well, because what on earth was I thinking? I pray a lot when things are going smoothly. I thank God –in tears sometimes– for his blessings, but when I get all worried about something, somehow I forget to pray. Do I forget that he's in control of everything? Do I forget that he has my best interests at heart? Do I forget that even though he gives me free will that he'll give me direction if I ask him? Do I forget that every good and perfect thing comes from above?

I think that mostly I just shut down when I get stressed. I'm mostly an underwhelmed person, so when I get overwhelmed I do this mental shutdown thing. And I forget to pray. I try to do crap all by myself. I completely lose my brain. Yesterday Kayla asked me how I was and I said, "I set my brain down somewhere today and I can't remember where."

Not praying. I am so dumb sometimes. It's like being intensely hungry, and just getting hungrier and hungrier, and then complaining, "I'm soooo hungry!" And someone saying, "Well, why don't you eat that five-course meal that's right in front of you?"

Duh. I'm going to go pray.

famigt

Today is one of those days. I can't even muster funny today. I don't want to be at work, I don't want to be around anyone, I don't want to be alone, I don't want to talk, I don't want to write. I just want to cry. Selling a house is stressful stuff. There's just so much to be done in such a short amount of time. I'm tired. Very tired.

There is a lot I could say here but it wouldn't be productive. I know that this too will pass. I'll just shut up for today and leave this blob with one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite philosophers.

All loathesome events become humorous tales with the passage of time. –Jimmy Buffett

well said

Steve, talking about constipation: "I shit you not, I shit not for forty-five minutes."

button education

Last night I was talking to my friends Isaac and Jason. Jason said (very excitedly, I might add), "Know what I learned today? The buttons on men's and women's shirts are in different directions. Like, if guys button their shirts this way, then girls button their shirts this way." He does the buttoning motions.

Isaac looks at me and tilts his head toward Jason. We both smirk.

We both look back at Jason and Isaac says, "Dude. Everybody knows that."

calm down, kevin

Just for you, I will post the most interesting thing that's happened to me in the two hours I've been awake so far:

While walking up the stairwell to my office this morning I spied a three-inch long cockroach. I'm not exaggerating. I was so appalled that I stopped and studied it. Yes, three inches. And I regret to say...I forgot to take a picture.

tick, tock, tick

I have nothing. I am bored at work and playing in Photoshop. Oh dear goodness where is five o'clock when you need it?

blog fodder

Me, to Cindy: I hope something funny happens tonight. I need something to blog about.
David: I was born in the wrong era.
Me: Which era should you have been born in?
David: Swords and stuff.
Me: Swords? And stuff?
Cindy: You should blog about THAT.

I think I'll also blog about the neverending game of UNO that we graced Starbucks with tonight. It lasted a good hour and ended with Jason winning because Jordanne cheated for him. Thank you, Jordanne, for putting us out of our misery. And Jason kind of deserved to win, what with all that holding of the forty cards at one time that he had going on earlier in the game.



Okay so it wasn't completely entertaining blog fodder, but it was relaxing, and fun, and I must say that I love my friends.

four-eyes

The solution to the raging headaches I've been getting from staring eight hours a day at a computer screen: GLASSES. Apparently I have a bit of astigmatism in my right eye and it makes for difficult focusing. I haven't had glasses in about ten years, and I kinda like 'em. I had LASIK for myopia seven years ago and wore contacts for about twelve years prior to that. I had "back up" glasses, but I never really wore them. Anyway, this is me with the new spectacles.

right now is a gift, that's why we call it "the present" –ziggy

Last night I was talking with a friend, and we were lamenting similar frustrations. I remembered a quote from John Piper and loosely quoted it. My friend said, "Wow. That rocks." So I went and found it today...and it was better than I'd remembered. It reminds me that there is no important "end result" when it comes to being human. What's important is who we are along the way, and that we enjoy the highs and lows, the confusion and clarity, the toil and rest – and that we endure it all with the peace of God.

So, Piper's quote. (If you want to read the entire text, click here.)

Here's what I would suggest as the main lesson: The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there. The life of the godly is not an Interstate through Nebraska, but a state road through the Blue Ridge mountains of Tennessee. There are rock slides and precipices and dark mists and bears and slippery curves and hairpin turns that make you go backwards in order to go forwards. But all along this hazardous, twisted road that doesn't let you see very far ahead there are frequent signs that say, "The best is yet to come." And at the bottom right corner written with an unmistakable hand are the words, "As I live, says the Lord!"

well said

Dave, to Caley and myself on the phone: "You guys better wear your helmets, because I'm going to tackle you."

revelation for the day

Of all the stupid things I've done in my life, buying a house was by far the stupidest.

uhm, ¿hola?

Last night in Spanish class, our teacher Jarrett asked me to pray. In Spanish. Uhm, yeah. I was like, "Oh, no. No. No, no." But he was like, "You'll do fine, just try."

So I started, "Señor..."

Silence.
Silence again.
Even more silence.
After about forty-five seconds I looked up and said, "Jarrett, I don't think this is going to work."

(Of course, he made me try. And basically I said, "Lord, thank you for this time. Help us in our class. Thanks. Amen." I know God got a great giggle out of that one.)

good news

Dave comes home this week. I'm doing the happy feet dance.

that's news to me

Last night Shea and I were sitting on the floor eating pepperoni and pineapple pizza straight from the box. He kept eating pieces then leaving the crust (yum) in the box. I (thinking "You gonna eat that?") said, "Do you not eat your crust?"

He looked at the pizza box, studied it for at least thirty seconds, looked surprised, then said, "I guess I don't."

he just makes me GIGGLE

Two days ago my friend Bert gave me a cd with his pictures from our Mexico trip on it. He (and others) stayed a week longer than the rest of us, and did some extra projects in the mountains near Monterrey. As I was scrolling through his pictures I realized with one click why I love Bert like I do. It was a beautifully done, with beautiful lighting, picture of poop. Yes, poop. It made me laugh sooooo hard.

I was going to post it here, but it IS rather gross, and I was thinking that some people –you know, the kind of people who didn't like the movie Dodgeball (cough. Cari.)– might get grossed out and well, even though she doesn't like Dodgeball I still love her dearly and I wouldn't want to do that. So I'm giving you people a choice. If you don't want to see the picture of poop, you don't have to. If you DO, click here.

(You just had to click, didn't you?)

well said

Julia, to me: "Stop that! Stoppit! Amy, I'm gonna take a day off work and come kill you."

when you say "enterprise" i think "starship"

For those of you not reading the comments section of this post, I just have to fill you in. It's just too funny. Kevin said that his editor told him, "What you do is kind of like being the best hockey player in Ecuador. To someone who actually gives a shit about Ecuadorian hockey, it's cool. Otherwise, not so much."

Kevin writes Star Trek novels. And I think he's cool. And I think his job is cool.

(But you can't trust me. I used to have a crush on Captain Kirk.)

clarification

I would like to point out that when I quoted Julia as saying, "Amy, stop it! Stoppit! I'm going to take a day off work and come kill you." that she was laughing hysterically and it was said in love.

Great love.

Uber-large amounts of love.

A Human Sparkler would never be serious about killing her Glitter Bomb.

Ever.

simple minds, simple pleasures

Sunday night at Chili's, I had my camera out because, well, because I take pictures. Shibu and Katie had spoons on their noses, Shibu and Jon Marc were posing like male models, etc. Caley and I kept taking pictures of Julia and just flashing in her face (hence the quote of the day from Julia in which she said, "I'm going to take a day off work and come kill you") so they look like total paparazzi shots. However, I promised Julia that they would not be on the internet, so alas, Internet, you do not get to see them.

Instead I will show you these. Isaac was intentionally putting his hand or arm in every single picture at the last second and let me tell you, it was hilarious. It wasn't the actual action that was funny, but it was the fact that he was trying to do it with a straight face and he kept cracking himself up. It was like when a comedian tells a joke and they're not supposed to laugh but they start giggling, sort of like Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show. And to watch someone try to not laugh when something is funny is one of the greatest joys in life.

i laughed so hard my cheeks hurt today

Last night Julia "pulled a Julia" and drove the two hours to Kansas City to go to The Gathering. It was a blast, we danced during worship and poked each other all through Isaac's sermon, then went to Chili's and had dinner with the whole Gathering gang. After Caley, Julia, Shibu, Jon Marc, Aaron, and I laughed our buns off eating dessert, we wandered outside to find Nick changing his tire in the parking lot. While he did that, we played Bop-It in the parking lot as Stefán chased Julia around trying to give her a hug. Then we listened to Nick's Mo Dizzle song.

So, clearly, a great night.

Julia drove away and Caley, Aaron, and I were just sitting talking. About twenty minutes later my phone rang, and it was Julia. She said, "I got a speeding ticket before I even got to the gas station."

I said something about hadn't she learned her lesson about speeding on Lamar after that time she got a ticket on the way to Hillary's wedding when she was all decked out in her bridesmaid dress.

The cop asked her if she was aware that it was a 30 mph zone. She said, "Yes. And it's a 20 mph zone on a schoolday." To which he replied, "Ma'am, you were going 47." She said, "But I know the speed limit so I wouldn't have been going that fast." He asked her if she wanted him to show her the radar.

So as she told me how fruitless the whole interaction was, she said, "I don't even know why I tried to argue with him. I should have just kept my mouth shut and tried to squeeze my boobs together."

well said

"Sean, my ass is on fire." –Julia, as she got into Sean's new truck and accidentally turned the seat heater on when it was 95 degrees out.

m-i-c-k-e-y. m-o-u-s...CRASH

This morning I was talking to my friend Amy (she sings, I play rhythm guitar in our childrens ministry band) and she told me a story that I hope NEVER happens to me. Or anyone else I love for that matter. In short, she got in a car accident because of a mouse.

Friday night, around 7:00 pm, she was driving at 65 or 70 mph down I-35 when she saw some movement and felt something strange on her chest. She looked down and there was a mouse on her left boob. Yes, a real live mouse. I think I said something to her about mice being cute but she assured me that when you're going down the highway at full speed and something just shows up on your boob, it doesn't matter what it is, it causes you to freak out. So she somehow managed to pull off the highway without getting hurt, but then while going 35 mph on a side street, she had lost the mouse and was looking for it and rear-ended another car. Fortunately, the guy was nice and helped her look for the mouse until they spotted it on the headrest of the back seat and opened the door and it scurried outside.

I remember one time when driving to work I saw a mongo spider crawl across my windshield. I thought, "Surely that was outside." But then here it came across my driver's side window, ON THE INSIDE. Man that just gives me the willies still. I pulled over and opened the door and brushed it to the ground.

Give me a break. The spider was as big as a mouse. Or at least that's what I remember.

and about that memo on cover letters for TPS reports

This is an actual email that I just got. (I'm not Steve, obviously, but the sender had Replied To All in this case.)

Steve, has an RFC been created and approved by the CAB for this? We need this done so that we can add it to the weekly Planned Outage communication. Thanks. You can talk to Teresa Hall to have this approved. Thanks.

Oh. Dear. God. I work in Office Space. For real. (And don't get me started on the happy hour that some of the dorks I work with had yesterday at a bar and disposed of a big clunky printer by pouring beer into it. Thankfully, I had better things to do...but oh did I hear about it this morning.)

to whom it may concern

Dear People Who Clearly Have A Drivers License So Have Obviously Passed The Driving Exam But Clearly Did So By Either Sleeping With The Driving Instructor Or Paying Him/Her Off,

If you are going to be one of the morons who spends five minutes backing into a parking space because you don't want to spend twenty seconds backing out of it later, please learn how to properly back up your vehicle. Seriously, when you spend five entire minutes completing this maneuver, you should not end up with your rear wheels hanging over the left parking space and your front wheels hanging over the right parking space. And you should definitely not walk away looking satisfied.

Sincerely,
One Of The Other Drivers That You Aren't Aware You Share The Road With

well said

Me, to Sean, as he sat in the middle of the parking lot, "Please don't get run over. That would seriously ruin my entire weekend."

you can take the girl out of the south

Today I was writing a thank you letter to all those who supported me both financially and prayerfully on the trip to Mexico. I was adding some pictures for a fun touch, and as I came across one of Grisilda and me talking, I started to laugh because I remembered exactly what we were talking about.

I had asked her the difference between alla and alli. They both mean there. She helped me by pointing. She pointed to her feet and said, "aqui." Then she pointed just out in front of us and said, "alli." Then she waved her arm as if pointing out on the horizon and said, "alla."

I completely understood. Lots of times in Spanish they have differing words where we have only one. And vise-versa.

But then she asked me, "How you say in English?"

So I told her, pointing as she had, "Here. There. Yonder."

Grisilda might be the only person in her 7th grade English class speaking with a southern twang.

planet funkotron

I am on hold with Best Buy Service Center, and people, let me tell you. You should drop whatever you're doing right now and call 1-888-BEST-BUY and ask them to put you on hold. This is the greatest hold music I've ever heard. It's totally funky and I feel like I'm playing Toejam and Earl all over again.

Do it. Stop reading and pick up the phone.

(PS Best Buy service rocks. My cell phone has crapped out and they're sending me a rockin' model that they say is "comparable." Comparable, my butt...it's WAY better. It has a camera, yo.)

terms of endearment

On Sunday night Caley was on the phone with Dave, and I was doing something else. She said, "Do you have time to talk to Dave?" I said, "Ask him if I can call him tomorrow night." She did, and he said that'd be fabulous.

Well, Monday night Julia rolled into town and so I spent the entire evening sitting in the parking lot with her and Sean. So, alas, I didn't get the chance to phone Dave. Tuesday night was church, and well, frankly I just forgot. So Wednesday, Carl had just rolled into Colorado Springs so I gave him a call to see how his trip was. As soon as I talked to Carl I remembered, "Oh crap. I haven't yet called Dave." So I mentioned to Carl, "I'm going to get groceries, then call Dave on my way home."

Carl said, "Yeah, Dave mentioned that you hadn't called him. He said, that Amy."

So when I finally called Dave after grocery shopping, I said, "Hey. I hear you've been talking smack about me." He said, "Yeah. Who told you? Caley?" I said, "No, Carl. You've been talking smack about me to both of them?"

"Yeah," he said, "I kinda called you a whorebag."

"You did? Dave, that rocks."

"Amy, that's why I love you."

way off subject

Okay, so apparently CJ has tagged (I have no idea) me to list the 10 songs I've been listening to recently. Since I'm a sucker for any game that gets to be all about me, here goes.

In no particular order...
1. Dark Rooster - Eric Rochester
2. Danny Rojas - Eric Rochester
3. San Miguel - Eric Rochester
4. Jimmy And The Lumberyard Girl - Eric Rochester
5. Wake Up Time At La Viña - Eric Rochester

(Okay, in case you're like, what the cat hair?, let's just say that when you take a former rock star (Eric) and put him in Mexico with a guitar and thirty other crazy Americans, we make up songs. About everything. And we sing them a lot. Like, all the time.)

6. Eden - Alli Rogers
7. Choosing - Alli Rogers
8. Dancing Generation - Matt Redman
9. Facedown - Matt Redman
10. Yahweh - U2

I realize that this was probably not entertaining in the least, but hey...when you're tagged, you're tagged. You have no choice.

she thinks my tractor's sexy

On Monday night Julia, Sean, and I were sitting on the tailgate of his truck in the parking lot of Chipotle. For hours. At one point the conversation turned to Sean's mountain bike and how it has chrome on it, but instead of calling it a bicycle, he just said, "bike."

Julia's eyes widened and she said, "You've got a motorcycle that I don't know about?"

Sean laughed and said, "No. My mountain bike."

Then Julia said, "Oh. Cause I was gonna say, you've got a motorcycle? Let's date."

(This was also in the same conversation in which she said, "And I'm going to Big Cedar for my honeymoon, I don't care if my husband comes with me or not. I mean, they've got a floating Bass Pro shop and everything.)

well said

Steve, to Andrew and Aaron: "Hey, would you guys think less of me if I wore my jacket?"

Andrew: "Steve. Have you seen the hat you've been wearing the past two days? There is nothing you could put on that would make me think less of you."

funny mexico story #2

What Bert said right before I took this picture: Hey everybody, who am I?
Me: You're ME!
Bert: Does syrup have sugar in it?
Me: Yes.
Bert: Then YES!

funny mexico story #1

This is me working my rear end off.

Just kidding.

I was sitting on the roof tying some boards together with wire, when the sun suddenly came out. (It had been overcast for two days.) Before I knew it, Grisilda (the twelve-year-old daughter of the family whose house we were working on) had climbed the ladder to the roof with an umbrella and opened it, holding it above me sheilding me from the sun. I laughed and thanked her, and when I was done tying up the boards I just sat there with her and talked. We were having a bit of trouble with the language barrier, so Danny (our translator), came and sat down with us. We had been sitting there for quite some time when Bert climbed the ladder, saw us, and burst into laughter. He could barely get out the words, "Where is your camera?"

He returned a half second later and took this picture, and between giggles said, "Amy, it's a good thing you're still wearing your work gloves, you might get blisters from holding that umbrella."

mexico revisited

“Worship starts with seeing you. No one can sing of things they have not seen...open our eyes towards a greater glimpse.” –Matt Redman

How often I have sung those words and not quite had anything to grasp. “The glory of you, the glory of you—” What is glory? I think this week I got a glimpse, a greater glimpse.

Each morning we had devos, and we spoke aloud a prayer, a Celtic prayer that says: Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. It’s romantic to think about it that way, but he was everywhere. He was under me in the mud, he was over me in the cooling rain, he was beside me in my strength, he was on my left in his beauty and on my right in relationships. He was in the cold showers and the morning rooster, he was in the smile of Grisilda and the sun shining on the mountain range. I said it seemed we’d had a little picture of heaven for seven days, and I really liked the look of it.

This blessing of seeing God, it speaks to my brokenness. A brokenness that gets disenchanted so easily. A brokenness that requires me to be removed from my every-day life in order to see Christ in the features of the faces of humankind. Before I left, I was struggling hard with love. Struggling hard with community. I felt like every blessing in my life: my friends, my job, my house—was an irritant. I wanted God to shatter that attitude in Mexico. Not only did he shatter it, but he built up in its place a reverence and a love and an awe for him. For his world. For his people.

I mentioned to my friend Aaron on Friday night, “Wow, how this speaks to the patience of God. His tenderness to my fallenness, that he would give me this gift. He shows me himself every day, but I don’t see him. So he gives me this gift, this stepping out of my comfortable world, away from distraction, to show me himself where even as stupid and deaf and dumb as I am, I have no choice but to see him; to hear him.”

In the weeks before the trip, I had become increasingly irritable and frustrated. I am a pretty laid-back person, but I was finding myself getting short tempered with other drivers, angry at machinery, bothered by expressions of affection. There was hardly a moment when I wasn’t thinking, “God, this is a blessing, I know it...why do I feel so outside of myself?” In Mexico we had an animal at La Viña, where we stayed, that we lovingly dubbed “Dark Rooster.” He went off around 4:00 am and really had no intentions of stopping anytime throughout the day. We also had two farm dogs, and on top of that—Hurricane Emily. As we had our team meeting one night in the open-air common area, the sound got so overwhelming that Eric stopped speaking entirely, resigned to the noise. Dark Rooster crowed incessantly, the rain was deafeningly loud, and the dogs started this sort of 101 Dalmatians-esque echo call across the countryside. Without realizing what a difference in attitude it represented, I thought to myself before realizing it, “Wow. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” (Psalm 150:6) What a work he’d already done in my heart that I didn’t just explode with frustration at the inability to follow the schedule. Instead he had me marvelling at his creation, marvelling at every creature unique in the song that it sings, marvelling at the heavens declaring his glory.

I’m not sure what brought on this sudden change in attitude, save a miracle. It was nothing within me. I had every catalyst for frustration that I needed: sharing a room with 12 other women, cold water only in the showers, freezing at night, pouring rain, Mexican-only cuisine, a stinky dog that fell in love with me, shoes that were too small, clothes that weren’t warm enough, other people using my fingernail clippers, not being able to flush toilet paper, etc. But as frustrating as they could have been, they weren’t. I loved sharing a room with 12 other women, the cold water in the showers was an adventure, something to brave and then laugh about. The coolness of night was delightful compared to the heat of the day. The rain softened the ground, allowing the installation of the sewer line to progress more quickly than planned. The Mexican food was incredible. The dog made me laugh. Et cetera. It was all beautiful. All glorious. It made me giggle, made me smile, made me draw close to God and thank him from my deep heart for all the new and different things I was experiencing.

Part of what I realized were my expectations. I worked hard to not have expectations for the trip, but I did have one rather large expectation: I expected God to show up. I expected him to amaze me. I expected him to change me. And you know what? He met and exceeded every expectation I had. Then it hit me: as much as I want it to be so, I don’t expect God to show up in Johnson County the way I expect him to show up in Nuevo Leon. How do I change this? Very intentionally, I would guess. I simply don’t pay attention. I fret too often about things that thieves and rust destroy. I spend my time worrying when I’ll clean my house and weed my yard, whether or not people like me and if I might have offered too much of myself, what sort of job I should be looking for because I’m not thankful enough for the amazing one that I have. There is all this clutter in my life that keeps me from seeing the miracle of the tuna. (Maybe I’ll post the miracle of the tuna later.)

So, ¿qué pasó en Mexico? God gave me a gift. The gift of letting go of—if just for a week—the things that don’t matter. The car and the job and the house and the clothes and the makeup and the when-am-I-going-to-mow-my-lawn and the why-did-I-get-passed-over-instead-of-picked and anything else that you can’t take with you to heaven. Instead I got to revel in the things that do matter—God, people, laughter, community, servanthood, love. And with that, my heart came alive.

The blessing at the end of the Celtic prayer we prayed each morning went like this: May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

He certainly answers prayers.