New Year's Eve

Drew wanted to rush out and spend his Christmas gift cards. We had talked about doing that, but the weather was horrible. I could not be coaxed into visiting the mall or any other place he wanted to go. My idea was to just stay home and ride it out.

He finally did get me to take him to the Toys R Us closest to the house. I drove with great trepidation, slipping and sliding around in the slushy streets, the wipers working double time and still not keeping the windshield clear. We made it there OK, but the store didn't have what he wanted. He debated - should I get something that's OK but not what I really want, or should I wait and try again elsewhere? He begged and pleaded and wheedled to get me to take him to the other store, but I would not budge. It was bad out there. I was going home. Period. He was out of luck.

You could almost smell the rubber burning as he debated with himself about what to do. In the end, he decided to wait and try to get what he wanted online. A much needed lesson in patience. I didn't quote the old adage "Good things come to those who wait." He was much too grumpy for that! The car was filled with silence as we headed home. Not anger because Mom is being mean, but a quiet reflection of events that didn't go as hoped. The wipers squeaked and flopped across the window, manfully trying to clear the big wet sloppy flakes of snow in a timely fashion. I could practically hear Drew's disappointment though he said not a word.

After we got home, there was no talk about planning a special New Year's meal, no mention of watching the ball in Times Square fall, no desire to watch TV celebrations, not even any begging to stay up until midnight. Drew was downright depressed about not getting that one toy he wanted so much (and the reason for the gift certificate in the first place). He just went to his room, put on his headset, and lay on the floor staring at the ceiling, sorting things out. It was, without a doubt, a pivotal time for him as he moves from kid to young adult. It does not come without a price, this growing up. Yet for all the heartache he feels today, he will look back later and realize how minor his disappointment compared with other things he will encounter along life's path.

Still, that doesn't make it any easier. I can say that those who have lived through the hardest things often are the most understanding of what others are enduring, are the most flexible in adjusting, are the least likely to sweat the small stuff. Today Drew added another notch to his belt of tough life experiences. One cannot know what else may come his way, but if he deals with each one as he has dealt with today's, he will do well.

Icicles

How luxuriant to stay abed of a morning! Nowhere to be, no one to appease, no onerous chores calling. It had been frosty and snowy for days - a Narnian winter before Aslan appears, lacking only the Turkish taffy.

I lay quietly reading - for pleasure, mind you! My heart wasn't really into it though. My mind kept drifting here and there, daydreaming about how I might help some poor child with a physical affliction, some poor orphan in desperate need, some mother struggling to battle cancer (sorry, can't help the day dreams).

I realized after awhile that I was focused on a huge icicle hanging from the roof outside my bedroom window. It was thick and rumply transparent, melting and freezing all at once. A drop of water would melt near the top where the sun struck it, begin to roll down the side of the icicle only to freeze halfway down and stick tight making all sorts of lumpy bulgy odd shapes.

When I was a kid, the manses we lived in were all older buildings without a great deal of insulation in the roof. Icicles hanging from the eaves and gutters were commonplace. One year when we were living in Johnstown a huge icicle formed on the corner of the house near my bedroom window. It was as thick around as a small child and extended from the second story roof clear to the ground.

One of the neighbor kids tried to knock it down with a baseball bat, but the icicle was so thick that it barely dented despite all the force he used. It was just as well since the sinewy arms of that ice dagger had entwined about the power lines coming into the house, and had he succeeded in shattering it, no telling what that might have done to our power supply.

Those were days of innocence and ignorance. I clearly remember licking sharp pointy icicles and crunching the skinny ones between my teeth. They had that peculiar taste of wet cardboard and driveway gravel mixed with flat soda - at once refreshing and disgusting. Of course, we ate snow back then too and thought nothing of it. Our only caveat was not to eat yellow snow. Nowadays, no one in their right mind would eat snow. No telling where its been and what it carries.

Well, no point lying here thinking about icicles. Though perhaps it does explain why my room tends to get cold. Old buildings, lacking insulation. Ah, me. I wonder if the state programs for energy efficiency include apartment complexes? Perhaps I should investigate.

Yo-Yo Weather

Who would have thought we could see two degrees temperatures, frozen snow and blizzard conditions one day, and fifty degrees with melting spring sunny blue skies weather the next! But that's what we are getting. One day the campus is peppered with students attired in shorts and tee shirts a la summer, the next they are bundled up with scarves and mittens and winter coats. My poor body is so confused. It doesn't know whether to shed pounds or pack them on. There is nothing predictable about what the day will bring; even the weather forecasters are scrambling to keep up.

Sometimes life is like that. It should be a certain season of your life, but suddenly you find yourself cast without warning into another unexpected timeframe. I have a friend who just retired. She and her husband were looking forward to traveling, doing things together that they had not had time to do when they were both working. Freedom from the tyranny of 9 to 5! But with one short phone call, they find themselves in charge of raising a four year old granddaughter. Who may end up living elsewhere in a few weeks when the dust clears a bit.

Two members of my class have unexpectedly found themselves laid off, out of work, without income often through no fault of their own. Now what? There is no magic 8 ball to show them how far the yo-yo string will go down before it heads back up. They hang on, hoping, waiting for another offer, praying that their circumstances don't go too sour before recovery comes. And it will come. They just don't know when.

It is, like dealing with unexpected weather, less about the hardships and more about the unpredictability. We can be adaptable, can enjoy each season for what it has to offer. Even winter's cold prevents the face from aging! But we prefer seamless and anxiety free transitions from one scenario to the next. Even if we have to settle for something less than optimal, less than we had before. Just get us there in one piece please. Without any sort of breakdown.

Lord, let us know that You control the spinning of the yo-yo. Remind us that our lives will never go careening too far out of control, that you will always return us to the place just right. One way or another.