Reminders

     I just came in from the porch listening to the laughter of the family Melody is photographing.  A family friend picked up on her ability to take good candid shots.  She has an eye for light and graphics.  I'm so glad because she so easily falls prey to what her peers are portraying that she often can't see her own possibilities.   The surrounding pictures are ones she took of her sisters in the last week.
     As the family arrived, McKala drove up with Michael.  She picked him up from the internship he's doing with a large animal veterinarian.  McKala had asked me to come by Chick-fil-A before I dropped Michael off.  She had gotten me a gift card and had made a special dessert.  To top it off, her superior came to the table and said, "I haven't told McKala this yet but she is such a hard worker.  I could train 100 people to go out in the dining room and I'd have to go behind what they left, but McKala, not at all." 
     We'd come by to see McKala after I'd taken the boys fishing at the lake.  Macklynn had been invited to come fishing at the residence of McKala's boss.  Out of good will, he said he could come any time and Macklynn surely took him up on him.  He spotted him to hit him up halfway through the meal at church Wednesday night. 

     We were met by their Chocolate Lab and the neighbor's Pit Bull/Boxer mix. We walked down the hill to the dock as church bells chimed in the distance.  As soon as Michael put on his new line, Macklynn dropped his night crawler down in the water and started catching Brim right away.  Michael casted toward a fallen tree and almost had a big one.  The two of them argued which had more value and Macklynn won with the meal all his small ones would make compared to Michael's no catch at all! 
     I took off my button up shirt, flipped up my jean legs and sat there in their white Adirondack chair surrounded by all God's glory in my bare feet and white tank, with my hair blowing in the clear blue sky.   It was such a change from the "jagged little pills" I had to swallow the day before.  Most everyone was venting their frustrations that we never seem to complete anything, that I start things and don't finish ...and they're right.
     It was humbling to sit again in the presence of the One who set into motion the waves of the water, the wispy clouds of the sky, and the varying foliage of the trees.  He's the one who sends the warmth of the sun to find me as if it's the touch of His own hand.  There I was sharing it with our boys in a place offered by people who surely didn't have to. 
     The boys threw bread out for the fish.  Soon enough the Lab figured it out and swam out to retrieve it for himself.  The other dog visited with me and I got to squeeze its precious face the way I used to Tootsie's.  Then they'd run off to find driftwood to tug away from each other.  Soon enough, it was time to get lunch and leave Michael at the Vet's office.  On the way home, Macklynn was sitting behind me and said, "I had a good time."  He doesn't say much, so I know he meant it, just like when he and I were sitting on the porch in the rockers a few days ago; and as we looked toward the pond, he asked, "How will Earth become Heaven?" and followed it quickly with, "Will there be fish there?"  He finished it pensively with, "I hope so."  Those are the moments I live for, the moments that make it okay when things are undone. 
     When we got home, Miranda had cleaned out the carport, started the laundry that's piled up over the last 2 weeks of dirty well water, dusted and organized the bookshelf, mowed the front yard, and weed eaten the important areas for Melody to do the photo shoot that she forgot to tell us she had offered our property for.  This morning she got up and helped Michael cultivate our neighbor's garden with the horse he would normally use, except that the neighbor had a heart attack and just got out of the hospital.  That man is already out mowing his yard and ours and has just left this Saturday morning to do someone else's!  Michael is weed eating for him in exchange.  That same neighbor stopped by the other day on his motorcycle and as we talked about how Michael doesn't gun, the way most boys would, his Dad's old dual motorcycle he rides, he said, "My mama would've given anything to have a kid as good as Michael."  From a man who doesn't hand out many compliments, I was grateful to hear it. 
     Michael has also just left the earrings he's been making at the local general store.  He's already sold close to a dozen pairs this week to other people.  He and I were probably an interesting looking couple at "Michael's" craft store searching for the perfect jewels to place in the primer of the spent bullet casings.  You know, we may sometimes fall short of what the world expects on its timetable of proper knowledge, but I'm writing down for my pleasure these reminders of what the kids are able and willing to do with their abilities and creativity and generosities, of where God is putting them in His scheme of things.  All knowledge does not have to be crammed into 12 years.  Life is a building of relevant information and when it's gotten and appreciated in God's timing, then paired with skill and a good nature, it makes for a "sweet life".  You know, like the Paul Davis song.  Look it up; it's one of my all time favorites.
     That song always makes me think of Megan.  She's been calling all week.  She's left the rat race and is awaiting the "go" for the internship she's interviewed for in the ministry.  She's been spending time and having conversations with her grandparents.  She went to yard sales with her Pop yesterday just way she used to.  She went to a Braves game where a couple of special young people sought her out as their "leader" in the group.  God is moving and I can't wait to be a part of the revealing.  Gracious, I'm all teared up again thinking of that song, all that Megan's lived through since childhood and conquered, and who she's becoming in spite of it and because of it. 
     I love being a mother, even when I tend to stink at it.