When I left for my morning walk, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about today. The first song to play on my music shuffle was “Oh My Soul” by Casting Crowns.  The words perfectly expressed my thoughts. 

Oh, my soul

Oh, how you worry
Oh, how you’re weary, from fearing you lost control
This was the one thing, you didn’t see coming
And no one would blame you, though
If you cried in private
If you tried to hide it away, so no one knows
No one will see, if you stop believing

 

Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There’s a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
‘Cause you’re not alone

 

Here and now
You can be honest
I won’t try to promise that someday it all works out
‘Cause this is the valley
And even now, He is breathing on your dry bones
And there will be dancing
There will be beauty where beauty was ash and stone
This much I know

 

Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There’s a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down

 

I’m not strong enough, I can’t take anymore
(You can lay it down, you can lay it down)
And my shipwrecked faith will never get me to shore
(You can lay it down, you can lay it down)
Can He find me here
Can He keep me from going under

 

Oh, my soul
You’re not alone
There’s a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
‘Cause you’re not alone
Oh, my soul, you’re not alone

Over the past week, I have been trying hard to keep my stress controlled and to eat healthy,  get exercise and fresh air each day and to spend time on some of my hobbies. Sunday, however, my day started out with way, way too much stress.  Unfortunately, this stress led to my eating four frozen brownies for breakfast – not a good idea!  Fortunately, the stress cleared a few hours later. 

To make me feel less guilty about my overindulgence, I spent a couple hours scrubbing the tile in all of my bathrooms.  My bathrooms are now cleaner than they have been in years. I had planned to do some sewing yesterday.  But, those plans changed.  Now that I see how clean my bathrooms are, I am happy I completed that task instead.

Looking back over these past rather tumultuous days, I kept thinking about what the week would have been like if it had occurred as planned.  But, yesterday, I decided I needed to let go of what I lost. I need to focus on what I have and not on the things I had been wishing for.  Yes, a vacation in Palm Springs with a day to surprise my mother would have been nice.  But, the fact that I still have my mother living is something I am grateful for.  Yes, my wish for some relaxation time with my husband and a couple of our sons would have been nice.  But, I now have an extended period of time with my younger two sons and husband at home for us to do things together.  Yes, my wish for a smooth running and prosperous business was nice.  But, the fact that I have had a successful career that has allowed me to help lots of children have better oral health is another thing that I a grateful for.  And there are many, many more things I am grateful for.  

Sometimes, events don’t turn out the way we wish. Sometimes, we wish for more and wonder why we can’t get to where we want to go. It’s times like these we must realize that God has bigger and better plans for us. We must trust in Him to guide us and lead us to the right path. Lauren Daigle’s Song “Trust in You” has been going through my mind over the past couple days.  I hope you enjoy it. 

Ephesians 3:14-21 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

This past week, I was supposed to be on a vacation not doing anything dental related – just relaxing, going for hikes and knitting.  While I have not been in the office doing recare exams and filling decayed teeth, I probably spent twice as many hours as my normal work week “working” on office stuff.  Hours were spent on-line looking up information, renewing my knowledge of virology from my grad school days, writing policies/protocols and a whole host of other things. 

While there are still many things that need to be figured out, yesterday I decided to take a major break from office crisis management and went for a seven mile walk. 

There were lots of other people out for walks as well.  It was nice to see everyone maintaining their social distance but still being friendly.  Nearly every person I went by waved at me or said “Hi”, even though I had no idea who they were.  There was a group of kids playing kickball, with gloves on and their parents reminding them not to touch the ball.  At the park, a group of teens were shooting hoops, each with their own ball and gloves on (they even had different colored balls to know which was their own ball).  

The kids down the street had created some chalk art on their driveway.  But this wasn’t normal children’s drawings, these were messages to the rest of us.

Nice job, Kids!!

The song “Don’t Try So Hard” by Amy Grant is certainly appropriate for how I felt after my really long walk (although I’m kinda wondering how my muscles will feel tomorrow).

Hard to sleep last night with so many things swirling around in my mind.

My office is closed until April 10th and likely longer. I’ve had to lay-off nearly all of my wonderful staff. Many of my colleagues on the west coast are closed until mid-May or even mid-June. When we will all be able to re-open is a really big unknown. And, what will dental care look like when we do reopen?

With things rapidly escalating in NYC, my husband is heading there to pick up our son who is studying architecture in Brooklyn. We originally thought he could stay there since he lived in an apartment and could continue his studies from there. But, not knowing how things will be in a month or two, he wants to get out so he doesn’t contribute to the problem.

This truly feels like a long, twisting road that we don’t know what the end will be.

But, we do know that God  will see us through to the end!!

Well, today it is raining. A cold, chilly kind of rain. While rain can mean a lot of different things to different people (joy, sadness, and sometimes even just getting wet), today’s rain is a bit to cold for a long walk outside.

So, I spent my last hour using my indoor stair stepper. This isn’t a fancy piece of exercise equipment. It’s very small and slides under my sewing table for storage. But, with Minnesota weather it has been handy to have.

While “stepping”, I was looking at my current quilting project. I’ve been working on a landscape quilt and have reach the sky section. So, today in I will be “creating my own sunshine”.

A suggested song for today “A Million Suns” by Hillsongs United.

Living in Minnesota, the weather is still not warm enough to see the plants come back to life.  However, there is still plenty to see when going on a walk. 

Several wild turkeys greeted me as I stepped out of the house this morning.  Normally the turkeys annoy me because we have SO many of them in our neighborhood.  But, today I took the time to watch them for a few minutes and to marvel at God’s creation.  

As I walked through the neighborhood park, I came across four deer enjoying the quietness of the open space, two squirrels chasing each other from tree to tree, a cardinal in all its beauty, and a rabbit looking for signs of plant emerging from the ground.

And, just like yesterday, another song on my playlist helped lift my mood.  If you haven’t heard the song before, listen to the words of “Everything” by TobyMac.

I just returned from my morning walk.  It was a rather cool 27 degrees, but the fresh air was great.  With my headphones on, I would normally listen to an audio book.  Today I decided to put my music collection on shuffle and see what songs came up.  Great idea.  It seemed like God was really wanting to calm my inner thoughts.  

A song by one of my favorite artists, Lauren Daigle was the second song to play. I have loved “Look Up Child” since it was released.  If you have not heard the song before, I encourage you to click on the link and enjoy it.

My plans for the rest of the day are to dust our bookshelves and then do some sewing.  I hope everyone finds an uplifting way to spend their day.  Comments about how you are spending your day are very welcome.