OPEN MY EYES

By Lori Carmody

Last summer I got the fun idea to feed our daughter’s cheer team a meal after a game near our home since they would have a four-hour drive back to college. 

Last summer it was 75 degrees and sunny.

On Saturday, when my husband and I served dinner to the team, it was 54 degrees and it not only rained; it downpoured.  There were four quarters to the football game and at the end of each quarter I prayed, “P-L-E-A-S-E, God, have the time clock run down!” 

As we schlopped the food from our car to the tables underneath the canopy, we walked through a parking lot that, on this day, might have qualified for an Olympics swimming venue!  

We managed to get everything set up and ready for the team just as they were about to arrive.  I looked over at my sopping wet husband (who goes along with so many of my “fun ideas”).  All he said was, “kinda rainy today.”   I burst out laughing.

The puddle on the northwest corner of the canopy that was “keeping us dry” grew so large that, while we were having dinner, comments were made about our lovely “lake front” tailgate location J!

This unexpected and unwanted experience reminded me of a couple things.  Next time life throws me a curve ball, I need to name my new truth ~ “kinda rainy today” ~ and begin to “live and help live” (one of my favorite Bill Moyer quotes).  Most likely I am not the only one who is facing the new reality.    I can make life miserable for myself and everyone else by how I react to the situation or I can consciously embrace what is present before me and live in such a way that I help others to deal right along with me.

The parking lot may have been flooded with no end in sight to the rain.  We couldn’t do anything about that.  We could choose our attitude and laughing warmed us from the inside out.  Seeing our day with a “lake front location”  didn’t change the weather or the ground beneath our feet but it very well may have made all the difference in the world.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I appreciate it. 

J Lori