Levitating

I was going through some of the daily readers last night and came across this from Daily Reflections. It was a perfect reminder of what to do when I am getting impatient with myself.

"Impatience with other people is one of my principal failings. Following a slow car in a no-passing lane, or waiting in a restaurant for the check, drives me to distraction. Before I give God a chance to slow me down, I explode, and that’s what I call being quicker than God. That repeated experience gave me an idea. I thought if I could look down on these events from God’s point of view, I might better control my feelings and behavior. I tried it and when I encountered the next slow driver, I levitated and looked down on the other car and upon myself. I saw an elderly couple driving along, happily chatting about their grandchildren. They were followed by me–bug eyed and red of face–who had no time schedule to meet anyway. I looked so silly that I dropped back into reality and slowed down. Seeing things from God’s angle of vision can be very relaxing."

Since my wife has been out of town, I've found that there is a lot to do from dawn until hours after dark. Now that she is retired, she spends a lot of time working on the garden and around the house. After I got home from work, I worked in the garden, picked vegetables, walked the dogs, cut grass, and eventually cooked dinner.

I was getting impatient with myself as I was rushing to get everything done. I was hot from the oppressive heaviness of the humid air and dirty from all the chores. As I was picking beans, squash, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and peppers from the garden, I had to laugh. Here I was with all of this bounty of food from the garden, and I was focused on a schedule. Instead of just enjoying the moment, my mind was moving ahead to the next thing to get done.

So if I had looked down on the event from God's point of view, I would have seen a grubby man, drenched with sweat standing in a lovely garden furiously picking vegetables. Two of the dogs would have been looking at me and gently wagging their tails, no doubt wondering in their doggy minds about what all the hurry was about.

God would then have seen me laugh at myself, take the basket of produce, go to the house and fix a dinner of squash casserole, steamed green beans, eggplant fried with cinnamon, cherry tomatoes dusted with sea salt, and a cucumber and green onion salad. Cooking eased the impatience and a feeling of great satisfaction and peace came instead. I felt as if I were levitating after that meal.