Beautiful Things Out of the Dust

My local grocery store sells cacti.

That photo actually has nothing to do with today's blog post except that I noticed it today and thought it was weird.  So go ahead and take a moment to ponder it, and then we'll move on.

OK, so as you might have guessed my day began with grocery shopping (cacti weren't included on the list, so they didn't make it into the cart.  Sorry to disappoint).  Dallas was back to it's usual dry, sunny, less-crowded-than-during-the-super-bowl self today, which was a good change of pace.  The city is slowly getting back into my good graces...hopefully this trend will continue.  The grocery store was generally uncrowded.  Apparently 12:30 on a Monday afternoon isn't peak grocery-shopping time for people.

I don't really remember much else about the afternoon...which, since I done consume intoxicants, must mean that nothing consequential happened.  I do remember there was some bashing in of virtual heads with swords on Wii Sports Resort (not nearly as violent as it sounds).  I think besides that I really just sat around.  Today was back-to-school after last week's weather-related break, and I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it.  Once I got going, though, it felt good to be back on routine.  And I always look fabulous with my black and white plaid trench coat and sparkley sunglasses, so that put me in a good mood on the way to class (an emotion that was ameliorated by singing "Hey Soul Sister" enthusiastically at the top of my lungs as I buzzed down Central Expressway).

Class was good.  This was my once-a-week, 3-hour "Prayer and Spirituality" class (the one with the "circles of trust," for those of you keeping track).  Prior to class I had accomplished a feat of sneaky academic genius via email with the professor.  You see, every student in the class has to pick a classic text on Christian spirituality and give a quick oral book report to the class.  As I was perusing the list this afternoon, dreading the idea of adding an entire extra book to my workload just for a 5 minute report), I suddenly realized that The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence was on the list.  This excited me for three reasons: 1) This book is SHORT, 2) This book is EASY to read, and 3) I'VE READ THIS BOOK AT LEAST THREE OR FOUR TIMES.  And, it happens to be quite good.  I think I may have even squealed a little bit out loud when I saw it listed there.  I jotted a quick email to my professor telling him how much I would appreciate the opportunity to present this book to the class as it is one of my personal favorites, and within 15 minutes had an "OK" allowing me to claim that book (every student has to pick a different book, I'm 90% sure).  Then I did a little happy dance around my apartment because I dodged a stress bullet.

Back to class itself.  Somewhere in the middle of class (specifically, during a lectio divina reading of Matthew 1:10-11), it suddenly occurred to me how God makes beautiful things out of people's difficulties.  THIS was kind of a break through...it's basically God telling me "Chill OUT already!  Trust me, I know what's going on."  And that was good to hear, after yesterday's breakdown.  I've received so much encouragement from so many different people over the past two days, and I really want to say thank you SO much.  I need to hear people tell me "you can do this" now and again, and I really don't know if you can understand how much your constant encouragement means to me.  You all rock.  The new plan of attack, as difficult as I know it is going to be, is to stop stressing, and trust God to carry me through.  "Let go, and let God," as they say.

When I got back to my apartment after class, I wasn't really very hungry.  So, naturally, I made the world's most enormous meat loaf for dinner.  Actually, I made the world's most enormous meatloaf to cover the next six dinners, so that I'll have something substantial to eat before the class marathon tomorrow evening without having to cook anything.  In reality, it's probably not the world's most enormous meatloaf, but it is the first meat loaf I have ever created (yay comfort food!) and considering I'm the only person who will be eating it, it's pretty big.  Happily, it's from the "Cooking Light" cookbook I acquired from my family's kitchen over winter break, so it's healthier than the average meatloaf, and it is SO GOOD.  Seriously.  SO good.

Sorry to abruptly change from the inspirational God stuff to rambling about meat loaf.  But, I wanted to mention both, and I tend to do these posts in chronological order.  So how's about you go get yourself some meatloaf (or veggie loaf, if you're vegetarian), and ponder how God might be preparing something beautiful  out of your difficult circumstances.  And keep pondering the cactus in the grocery store while you're at it...that was weird.