Night and Day

Last night, Cora was tired. She didn’t want to eat dinner. At least not what I fixed her. So she fussed. And so I put her to bed. And of course, she woke up hungry. At 1:30. For almost an hour, we suffered her intermittent cries, getting up to comfort her for a moment, only to hear her start up again 5 minutes later just as we were beginning to drift off once more. Finally, Dave made her a bottle which she guzzled and by 3:00 she was fast asleep. At 4:30, we were still staring at the clock. Such frustration. Dave finally moved into the guest room because I was evidently moving too much. When I woke up several hours later, I assumed Dave must be skipping his first class for which he leaves at 8:30 since I hadn’t heard him yet. But getting up, I discovered he was long gone…I had slept right through his moving about our room while getting ready.

My plans for the day were pretty much nil. It’s so dark and rainy outside, and I decided it would be an inside, do-nothing day, as the last three days have been spent out and about running errands, and doing church and Regent things. So, mid-morning I lazily let Cao out to do his thing. When it was time to come back in, he looked at me pitifully. Cora did worse. She screamed. Rain or shine, she always wants to be outside. They were too much for me, ganging up like that. They always take each other's side. So I fixed a second cup of coffee, and the three of us strolled out into the dreary and deserted neighborhood streets. It was silent except for the stroller wheels rolling along on the wet and gritty sidewalk. The air was chilly and tingly, the smell of rain melding with that of a fire somewhere nearby. We all three were very quiet, using our noses and ears and not our too-often exercised mouths. Gradually, my heart that started out tired and dull became enlivened and invigorated. At one point, we passed a tree that was thick with a congregation of loudly chattering birds. Just one tree; they all evidently had gotten the memo of where to be today. Then silence again as we walked out of earshot. When we came back home, my coffee cup drained and my nose cold, those two were still loathe to go inside—Cora cried and kicked all the more instead of being grateful for the outing. They have no concept of rainy days being indoor days. Well, I’m appreciative that they pulled me out, out into what I thought might be uncomfortable, but in truth was moving and vitalizing. Like so much of what God does in our lives. We fear risk and discomfort. Usually, it turns out to be transforming.

Tomorrow we leave for the annual Regent retreat, a weekend of socializing amongst students and faculty. The theme is "Surprised by God: From Fear to Longing". It is at Warm Beach in Washington, which evidently does not have a beach, nor is it warm. Many of the students are camping. We’ll stay in a dry cabin where Cora will sleep much better (what a good excuse so we don't look like wimps not camping in the rain.) Childcare is offered during the sessions, so I look forward to the break. I’m doing several loads of laundry today in preparation. Thankfully, we now have a dryer. For a few weeks last month it was broken, so we were using the line. It’s one thing to have to hang the clothes to dry in August. It’s another thing entirely in September. Just the few weeks without made me extraordinarily grateful for the convenience of a dryer. At first, I was enthusiastic about the line: I had an idealized view of hanging the laundry out, saving energy, the clothes soaking up the wind-born scents of the outdoors. In reality, it is simply annoying. My clothes were stiff and wrinkled, sometimes they wouldn’t get dry before the sun set, then I would find them lying in the dirt where they had fallen off. And hanging up 25 cloth diapers, only to take them down twice when it started to rain, and then when they finally did get dry, were so stiff there was no way I could put them on a bare bottom, was not fun. But for all the hassle, I must say...is there much sweeter than a line of baby girl clothes blowing in the wind? Simply adorable. So, big tangent, but I’m happy to say, the laundry is almost all dried and folded and put away.

Tonight, a neighbor couple that we met while out for a walk one evening a couple weeks ago is stopping by for a glass of wine. They have a blonde dog almost exactly like Cao. So while the dogs run and play in the backyard, we plan to get to know each other a bit more. So much of our community is either Regent or church, so we are excited about extending it to include some neighbors.