God in the Little Things

Yesterday was our customary "Panera Bread Lunch Day." The Kia needed an oil change, so we dropped it off at the car dealership and hitched a ride to Panera (since it was POURING rain). When we picked the car up after lunch we were told that we'd need a couple new tires soon (really? The car only has 20,000 miles on it, for heaven's sake!). Randy mentioned that he wanted to get a "real" tire for the spare to replace the "donut" variety that came with the car. Since Alyssa and I will be driving across the country at the end of June with two cats and a dog (prayers, please), he wants us to have a good spare in case we get stranded with a flat tire in the Rockies or the middle of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Today I drove up to Kohl's in Cedar Falls, following my morning women's Bible study. Randy needed some towels for a special project he's doing for the church he will begin serving in California in exactly two weeks. I embraced the opportunity to dilly dally and try on some summer shirts and basically malinger (yes, this is basement-avoidance behavior). By the time I checked out it was past time for lunch, so I decided to stop at the Subway on University Avenue before getting on the highway and heading home. As I drove west on University, a bad sound started under the front of the car. I pulled into the Subway parking lot and confirmed that my right front tire was totally flat. This is the Subway RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Smitty's Tire and Appliance. Imagine that!

While I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Subway, a nice young man named Jacob, walked over to Subway with a portable pump with which he inflated my tire long enough to drive it next door to Smitty's. I continued to enjoy a relaxing lunch while they replaced the irreparable front tire and mounted a new tire on the spare wheel in the trunk.

It could not have been handier unless I had actually had the flat tire in the Smitty's parking lot! God's grace and timing amaze me sometimes.

Now, about that trip across the country. We have a Kia Spectra, a car on the smallish side with not much room in the back seat. We will have two medium-sized cat carriers housing two very unhappy cats, and a gimpy (not small) dog on the back seat. That should about consume all the available space. The vet said a couple times/day we should let the cats out to eat and drink and use a cat box. Picture this. Alyssa and I will take up the front two seats, the animals the entire back seat area. Somehow we are supposed to find room for a cat box and food and water bowls which the cats are supposed to take advantage of while we let them "roam" around the car. First of all, I'm pretty sure once they are freed from their cat carriers (in which they have ONLY ridden to the vet's office and back) it will be no small feat to get them back INTO them again. About the only floor space big enough for a cat box will be under Alyssa's feet in the front passenger's seat. So, here's how I picture the scene. I will turn around and get on my knees to liberate the cats from their carriers. Then Alyssa will put her feet in my lap, so the cats have room to do their business if they should so choose, while they are, more likely, frantically trying to make their escape or at least get far enough from me that I can't wrestle them back into their carriers. I should also mention that the dog HATES riding in the car and is so lame that it's nearly impossible to get her into the car since she can't hoist herself in and HATES to be picked up. Sounds like fun, don't you think? Any advice will be gratefully accepted.

Feeling Blessed

Wow, I am slow about getting these things posted. Life is rushing by too fast and I want to grab it by the coattails, dig in my heels and lean back to slow things down. Only two weeks until Randy rolls out of here in his little white pickup. I can't bear the thought. My heart is so full after this weekend.

Saturday a vanload of us drove up to Parkersburg to help with tornado cleanup. As we drove north on highway 14 the traffic slowed to a crawl as cars, vans, busses, trucks converged on Parkersburg from all directions filled with people ready to roll up their sleeves and work. The town is flattened (and I do mean flattened). If you want to see photos, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/generaldcmills/ParkersburgTornado/photo#s5204893272879008178. It staggers the mind and heart. As we stood on the foundation of the house we were working at, we could look out across town as far as we could see, and thousands of people were there sorting the debris into piles: wood, metal, debris, combustibles. Heavy machinery would then move in and haul away the piles little by little. Red cross vans drove around offering free tetanus shots, water, and work gloves. The Iowa Pork Producers fed people all afternoon at the Methodist Church, which has become the relief staging area. It helped put things into perspective for me. My basement may be full of things to sort after we had four inches of water, but we have stuff to sort. The place where we were working was reduced to splintered wreckage in which barely anything recognizable remains. We found one silver spoon, a small pile of recipes, a couple small pieces of china. That's it. The rest is just gone.

Then Saturday night I was sitting with my feet up recuperating from the day of bending and throwing mangled wreckage in the sun and the wind when we got an invite to join the Draffens for their backyard barbecue. We sat outside and talked until dark, then they lit the bonfire and we continued talking while the flames were reduced to glowing coals and the smoke kept the pesky mosquitoes at bay.

Sunday morning was Randy's last time to serve communion to our church family here in Reinbeck. He wanted it to be extra special, so he decided Alyssa and I should join him and we could serve communion to each person individually. Alyssa held the plate of bread. I held the plate of cups, and Randy used anointing oil to bless each person. I about came unglued as all these dear faces stood in front of me and I realized I can call every single person by name. What a treasure! How difficult to leave them all behind in a few short weeks. I can't even think about it or it undoes me.

That afternoon the church threw a great party for our family, to which they also invited the community. It was an Open House from 2-5 p.m. Sherrie filled the place with gorgeous flowers from her yard. Marlys baked the famous Orange Marmalade cake from the Mitford series of novels. Rachael took pictures (you can see some on her blog. She also framed a photo of our family at Randy's graduation with a large mat around it for everyone to sign their name on. Sara sustained me with hugs and her wonderful smile. Dan and Tom kept everyone's cups filled with punch and coffee, Jean, Sherri, Kathy, Carol and many other ladies from the church kept the dessert table filled with mouthwatering delicacies. We felt very loved as people stopped by to give us their best wishes and their hugs.

Today found us in the church kitchen again serving the meal after Alan Hinders' funeral. Those ladies run that small kitchen like a well-oiled machine. It's a sight to behold. This time I got to help! It's always a wonderful time of fellowship, making sandwiches, drying dishes, refilling trays, and chatting all the while. It always reminds me of holiday meals when I was growing up when all the women would end up in the kitchen. Now I know why they enjoyed it so much! It's a perfect picture of hearts and hands working in harmony.

Randy got his D.Min!

Many thanks to Rachael, photoshop queen extraordinaire, for the tutorial on how to make a photo collage. You'd have to travel the world over to find someone more cheerful-hearted and generous in sharing her expertise. We had a fun time on Saturday morning with our computers side by side while her daughter, Waverly, wandered by to chat once in awhile and Stella (the cat) and Sarah (the dog) competed for petting and ear scratching.

Randy's graduation ceremony was at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa (right across the street from the seminary) at 9:30 a.m. on May 10th. After five years of work, he finally has the diploma in his hands. So now he is the Reverend Doctor McGrady-Beach - quite a mouthful! I am so proud of him! All our children came home for the event, including the newlyweds (Ian and Jess). It was really bad timing for Ian, Jess, and Emily. Emily had to miss the last few classes before finals week to fly to Iowa on Friday and when she returned, she had a 6 page paper due and then finals. Ian and Jessica gave up five days of working at The Onion, including Mother's Day, which is a huge money-making day for waiters. When they returned to Spokane, they only had five days to clear out their apartment, write wedding thank you notes, and pack for their four month adventure in Alaska. It meant a lot to both Randy and me that they all came under those circumstances. It was one last chance for our family to be together here in the house we have called home for 14 years, before Alyssa, Randy and I move to California. Randy's mom and step-dad were here from Bend, Oregon, and his aunt and uncle were here from Ann Arbor, Michigan. We had 9 family members around the dining room table Saturday night for Randy's celebration dinner, which he had to miss due to getting called to the hospital emergency room. It was a sweet time, made more poignant by the fact that it the last time we'll all gather here together.

Spring at Last!

Daffodils along our driveway.

More Wedding Photos

The Newlyweds

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Ian McGrady-Beach.

They were married on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 4:00 in the afternoon in the chapel at Fort Wright Mukogawa Institute in Spokane, Washington.  It was a picture perfect simple, but elegant, wedding.  Jessica wore the dress both her grandmother and her mother had worn (with the sleeves removed).  Ian could not stop smiling.  My husband performed the ceremony.  Our two daughters read scripture.  Jessica's sister was her maid of honor.  It was a joyous family celebration in a beautiful place surrounded by the love and good wishes of their closest friends and family.  We are thanking God for the joy of welcoming this new daughter to our family.  I will post more pictures once I figure out how to get them sized properly.

Beauteous Spring

"Nothing is as beauteous as spring." (This if found on one of my rubber stamps that is packed away in the storage unit across the highway, so I can't credit the author.)

 

As our plane began its descent into the Des Moines airport on Tuesday evening, Alyssa looked out the window and exclaimed, "It's GREEN!"  In the twelve days we had been on the west coast the Iowa landscape was transformed from winter drabness to spring glory!  Words are inadequate to describe the deep emerald green velvet of the spring grass, broken only by freshly plowed fields.  The daffodils that border our driveway are just exploding into sunny blooms and the lilacs are budding, their promise of sweet fragrance perhaps a week away - just in time for all our family to arrive home for Randy's graduation.  That's one blessing of this year's protracted, intractable, frigid winter - things are blooming later, which turns out to be just in time for our family's final reunion in this home where they grew up.  I feel enveloped by grace.

"Grace and beauty are performed whether or not we sense them.  The least we can do is try to be there."  Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)

This afternoon I sat in a church pew and was reduced to tears by the beauty of the music that poured out of the gifted finger tips of our sixteen-year-old friend, Katie, as she performed one breathtaking piece after another - Beethoven, Schubert, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff.  The notes rolled in thunderous waves and spritely laughter from the grand piano to shimmer and vibrate in the air around us.  I was smitten.  Her two darling three and five-year-old sisters sat in the pew directly in front of me.  They never even looked at Katie.  They were too busy whispering to their girl friends seated in the pew with them and drawing pictures on the cards left in the pew for that purpose.  It occurred to me that this was "old hat" for them.  They have listened to Katie playing the concert grand in her living room at home for hours and hours every day for as long as they have been alive.  They have become inured to the beauty by too much familiarity. It's part of the background "noise" of their daily lives.  It doesn't dazzle them, as it does me.

I thought about all the "grace and beauty" that are performed around me in this place every day.  As I live out my last spring in this place, at least for awhile, I want to notice all of it. I don't want to take any of it for granted.  

On my way home from church I slowed to car to a crawl to watch three young rabbits playing chase in a yard ahead of me.  They raced full bore in a single file line around the dirt-tickling "skirt" of a cedar tree.  They looped around it again, and once again, before launching themselves off the curb in front of me and streaking across the road and out of sight. 

Yesterday morning I stood at the window to our sun room for a long time and watched our geriatric, black dog and our adolescent, ginger and white tabby cat take a stroll around our yard together.  They are different species, different sizes, different ages, and different genders, but they are "best buds."  Annie,who is almost totally blind and deaf, stops for long sniffs.  Rusty rubs against her legs and twines himself in and out under her belly.  She moves on and he prances after her.  In fits and starts they survey their kingdom, never more than six inches apart.

In the evening the three of us, my ancient dog, my goofy cat and I, took a stroll first around our yard and then down the road behind our house.  The air, crisp with the scent of burning leaves, felt like more like autumn than almost-summer.  We walked through the dark under a canopy of sky dancing with stars.  We had the night all to ourselves while our neighbors were tucked away indoors.  A blast of rock music leaked through a door, open and then shut again.  The laughter of many voices emanated from a house where a party was in progress, as evidenced by the array of vehicles crowding their driveway.  Lights glowed through closed curtains.  We walked along the dark corridor, feeling just as solitary as if we were walking in the woods by our mountain cabin in the "off season."  Companionable, unhurried, content.  Beauty and grace abounded.  I was glad we had shown up to witness the performance.