Happen

When I was in high school I had the John Lennon quote "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans" plastered on my bedroom wall. It was some strange balm to my teenage soul. That even the everyday muck of boys and physics and college applications and summer jobs - that too was life and if I wasn't too careful, it was going to pass me right on by with my plans of a grand(er) future.

It's funny what comes back to you. Just tonight that quote popped in my head as I took Brody for a walk. This week has been crazy and has made me a little crazy. I was sick with the stomach flu Monday night, too tired and worn out to do much of anything on Tuesday, was at Bible Study all evening on Wednesday, and was out later tonight at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. I came home to a house that was semi-clean, but not clean enough to let me sit down and chill. It was the not-clean-enough to make me, tired as I am, clean/organize/do something. I came home to a yard that really needs to be raked and cared for, mulch that needs to be replaced, bulbs that need tending. I came home still tired and a wee bit spent from being sick, needing to just sit and rest and watch the Office and laugh. Too many things to be done is such a short amount of time.

But life still happened. Things happened that were not in the to-do list in my head. Today, I got to hear good lectures, walk outside in the sun, talk with two good friends and enjoy, from the ease of the sidewalk, other people's perfectly tended yards. I can still see the floor that needs to be washed and the lawn that still looks like a matted mess and the shadows under my eyes. And those things will all still be there tomorrow, but there will be new things that just, wonderfully, happen.