Just So Darned Happy

Driving back from church service

Under the blue Virginia sky, 

Listening to Jadon read a book to Caleb,

With an album by a friend playing,

And talking to Phil about this and that.

So Patient

I was thinking recently of

All the car maintenance,

All the car repairs,

All the necessary inspections,

Almost all the gas

That Phil gets.

I sit at home and feel happy and productive,

While he spends his time doing necessary but 

Unglamorous, time-consuming tasks.

Ready for the Weekend

Shortly after noon,

I finished my hours for the week

And settled in for the extended

Two and a half day weekend.

I hadn’t gotten a box all week, 

But stopped checking at 4:30.

It was the weekend!

At 5:30, Caleb came in to say 

That Joe and Abraham were bringing a box,

Too big for him to lift.

Then, out the window,

I saw those two intrepid boys, 

Bringing the largest box of books I’ve seen,

Rolling in down the huge slop, 

Setting on the lip of the wagon.

Sixty-five pounds of unopened amazingness.

It will sit on my counter. 

After all, it’s the weekend!

Grow

Joe copied a sentence today

And added his own flourish, 

Including the word “grow.”

He spelled it correctly.

Not Listening

Some years back, Phil started to wear head phones

All the time around the house. 

I remember I hated it at first, as he cut himself off.

But then I did the same, listening to 

Audio books, lectures, sermons, webinars, documentaries,

Courses . . . anything to keep me occupied 

During the long hours in the kitchen.

But between no spend month, where I won’t buy anything new

(Though there is plenty to listen to in my library already),

And between experiments in prayer while cleaning 

(Now a two-day failure—oops),

I have noticed that, without my headphones on,

Phil and I are talking more. 

Sharing thoughts about the boys, or work . . . 

The stuff of daily life.

Commentary

“When we read a book from one side of the war,

That side seems right.

But when we read a book from the other side of the war,

That side seems right.”

—Joe, age 10

My work here may not be done, 

But it is well begun.

Today

In my mind, the day of prayer was Wednesday,

But when I woke on Tuesday, I thought I should double-check.

Unsurprised, I learned that Tuesday was the day.

And so I prayed on Tuesday, as I went about my day,

Nothing particularly special or out-of-the-ordinary,

But a regular and continual beseeching that the Holy Spirit would act.

And the report came back that he did:

That teaching was clear, that computer programmers broke out

In heart-felt cries for revival, that all had a renewed sense of

What God can do with a prayerful people.