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Procrastination is not a good thing.

Crastinatey--he gets you every time!

The words whispered to me from Facebook, twittering their ugly truth, but I laughed. Oh, I know they’re true, but I saw the humour not the truth. And I, flibbertigibbet that I am, sent the message right back.

“Well,” I wrote. “It can work out for the good, you know.  Like, for instance, when you procrastinate about buying something because you hate shopping and then when you can’t possibly wait any longer, you go for it and find out it’s on sale.”

And then…and then. I was accused of being SO DUTCH. By someone else. On FB.

She’s right of course, or was she perhaps thinking of someone Frisian? You know the old joke.  Why does a Frisian (Dutchman) have a bald forehead and big ears? 

The answer of course is: “It cost HOW MUCH? TJonge.”  This is of course, accompanied by pulling the ears forward to hear and slapping the forehead in disgust. Anyway, it made me feel loved to be in among a few Dutchies who understood each other.

But my new FB friend doesn’t know me well. I think she thinks I thought without thinking.

No, no, she said.  Procrastination is very serious.  It keeps you awake at night.  Well, that’s true.  It does.  If I, for instance, have an assignment due, and there is a deadline, (which I have had and for which there was), I procrastinate and then I can’t sleep. Mostly that’s because I lay awake and compose the answer to the question so that my fingers can fly over the keys and write out the answer to post two minutes before it’s due.

And that’s not a good thing because four minutes after I post it, I think of something I should have said that would have explained it a whole lot better than what I said in my post.

And I wonder why I don’t get “Pass with Honours.”

And of course, I also procrastinate when it comes to doing housework.  These dark, gloomy days that’s not such a big deal, but when the sun shines brightly, which it does occasionally, the layers of dust on the furniture shout at me. It also never fails but that the sunny days coincide with a visit from friends, or worse, an IN-LAW. But, not only am I a procrastinator, I have also learned to hold my head high and pretend I don’t see the dust. They don’t have a clue that inside I am mortified. Really. Big time.

Life is tough when you’re a procrastinator.  You don’t sleep, you have a wooshy stomach because you are worried about not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and it bites you when you least want it to.

And now, I procrastinate no longer.  To the post!

I've procrastinated.

Why am I thankful?

My heart is filled with joy and thanksgiving.  I am loved by God. I know beyond a doubt that I am. How is it possible you say? Well, for one thing, I know because of answered prayer.

I won’t go into a long list of things I’ve prayed for over the years. The list will no doubt look just like yours. But a few things stand out in my mind.  One in particular.

When we lived in the country, I had planted a shrubbery garden along the driveway.  In it was a stand of white birch.  They were beautiful.  I don’t remember how many there were but I loved them. And then, I started to notice holes in the bark of the trunk.  A whole lot of them and I quickly became familiar with the sound of the yellow-bellied sapsucker responsible for those holes.  It girdled the trees—many rows of holes and the trees bled to death.  There was nothing to do but cut them down and use them for firewood.

We found more white birch saplings and planted a new stand—five of them beside the creek, at the top of the ridge.  They grew quickly and they too were beautiful. But one day, as I worked outdoors, I heard the call of the yellow-bellied sapsucker once again and sure enough, it was at the birches.

So, I figured I may as well go to the highest Authority and I prayed, “Lord, there is a forest full of white birches and other trees this bird likes.  Would You please send it away so that it never comes back here to bother my trees again?”

And He did.  Because He loves me.

I am able to worship Him freely.  If I want to sing, I may, if I want to shout (which I don’t usually), I may and if I want to visit Him in His house, I may freely do so without fear of harm.

I have a loving husband.  He’s always ready to hug me, tries to be understanding when I’m annoyed with dumb things in life. He has made our house a home with the hundreds of nails, screws, pieces of insulation, plasters and drywalls, coats of paint.  He’s put together a fine greenhouse. When I need something for the garden, it may take a while but he’ll make it.  He loves our children and grandchildren.  He’s an awesome grandfather, ready for fun. He never minds helping with anything.

I have an amazing, loving family. We love and respect each other, and we’re sad when we’re apart. Our children-in-law are God’s gift to us and we love them. Our grandchildren, all of them, fill our lives with joy.

I have a good home.  It’s filled with the memories of happy times before we all turned grey—times at Christmas when we had the whole clan together, birthday celebrations, times of sorrow. And now we fill it with our own memories—grandchildren playing, climbing the trees, swinging on the swing, helping in the garden or raking the leaves—happy times and they continue.

I have great siblings—each one unique—each one a piece of my patchwork. All of us brought up to honour the Lord, and each one of us trying to do so in our own way. All of us brought up to love and respect each other, and we try to do so.  Sometimes we do dumb things, and the others get angry, but each time, God gives us the grace to forgive and move on.  Sometimes our own lives get in a tangle, and then we pray for each other—often it’s the best thing we have to give.  And we know the others are praying for us.

My in-laws are fine people.  Some of us go back a long way and have many memories. Some of us don’t know each other too well. But we all get along.

I am thankful because I know, if ever we need anything, there will always be a family member somewhere who will be there for us, no matter what we need.  We’ve not always been able to talk about our needs, but over the years we have learned that together we are strong. And when God walks with us, nothing can hold us back. But we’re still discovering the truth of that.

I’m thankful that our baby grandson is making progress. That’s another reason I know God is faithful and He loves me.  He has blessed us all with a smiling little child whose health was compromised, but who is on the mend, with God’s help and protection.

As I leave, I write one of my favourite passages in the Bible:

“For You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

God is so good.

The Monster in the Store

There it sits. That wicked monster. It’s waiting for me. I can feel it in the air. It knows I’m coming but I’ll fool it today—I won’t give it the opportunity to yell at me.  Nasty thing.  It yells and then laughs its keys off because I’m not allowed to yell back.

It has to be real. I know it has to be. There has to be someone in there who overheard the instructions I was given on how to treat it well.  Now, those weren’t the exact words that were used, mind you. It was more like, well, “It’s easy. You’ll get the hang of it in no time.”

Huh!  I wonder how long ‘no time’ is because I haven’t got the hang of it yet. That amount of time should be up by now. And it’s waiting for me.

I think today is the day it meets its Waterloo, though. I know I said that yesterday and last week too, but this time I’m really ready.  I have everything written down. I’m sure it’s right, I think.

Today, I am just going to stride up to the front, like this, huge steps, firm, loud, decisive. I’ll flick the switch to the ‘on’ position. Easy so far. I’ll throw the money into their correct places and pop the drawer shut. Now we wait.

*************

This first customer should be a piece of cake. My heart’s not thumping because I’m scared. I’m feeling victorious. Read my eyes. Victorious. Check out the hand. It’s pretty steady. It is! Look at that thing, humming evilly, waiting. It won’t beat me—not today. Tomorrow maybe, but not today. And I’ll prove it. Here goes.

Yarn, eh? Three balls at three forty-five, hit ‘yarn’, hit ‘sub-total’, take the money, hit ‘cash received—

Did it!  I win.

**************

Alright! It has been an awesome day.  I’m on a roll. There’s nothing stopping me now. Daily close, here I come. Right after I ring in this employee purchase, ten more minutes and voila, one successful day.

So, let’s see, five balls at eleven ninety-five at employee discou…………Oh no! I forgot! Don’t use the ‘at’ twice in one sentence.

Crud. It’s laughing. I know it is. And here comes a customer and I can’t remember how to correct and I can’t get the cash register open and…….

I”m dead.

From now on I’ll double check every instruction I have written here before I use them. I’ll beat the boss to every customer. I’ll do every transaction all day long.  I will not let a mere machine defeat me.

**********

Un–real. I mucked up the close. It’s screaming again.

Oh….shut…..up.

To respond to this bit of nonsense email me at : okcanadawrite@cogeco.ca

My heart hurts.

Three sad words. Even a warm hug won’t make that better.

It’s so easy to become discouraged, isn’t it?  Life ticks along quite nicely and then all of a sudden things start falling apart. We’ve all had it happen. And when you’re in the middle  it’s hard to see that light at the end of the tunnel.

There is a remedy with a healing ointment, though. When things are going poorly, write them all down. Every single one, in whatever order they come into your mind. Don’t bother prioritizing, because at the moment they’re all important and each one is a brick in the wall that’s crumbling around you.

Next, write down the things that are going well, the things that make you smile. You should be feeling a bit better after the second list. Hopefully it’s a whole lot longer than the first one.

Go back and look at your first list. Take the first item, bring it to the gates of heaven and ask God to deal with it. Then leave it with Him, expecting that He will do so. That’s really important, the expecting part. There’s nothing He can’t do. He just does it in His time and you will have to be patient.  Look at the first item on your second list.  Bring it to the gates of heaven and thank God for it. Let Him know how important His care is.

Continue with both lists until you are finished.  You don’t have to do it all at once. With each thing, wait just a moment to hear the answer.

Keep going back to the first list and check off the answers as they happen. It will surprise you what the Lord has done.

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