thoughts on the news of the day: routine

hmmm…..

            I’m back.  It has been a bittersweet Thanksgiving.  Sweet because I got to see my beautiful daughter.  I don’t get to see her enough and the time we spent together was filled with joy and laughter.  But the end of my vacation brought the end to a friendship with a very close, dear friend.  I had to say goodbye at a funeral held last Sunday.  It was an odd way to end a vacation; one that was not planned and won’t be forgotten.

            But there’s a lot to be said for coming back to a routine.  I am looking forward to sitting at my desk, going through mail and email and visiting with friends I haven’t seen for a while.  There will be plenty of coffee and maybe a cookie or two.  People will bug me about things that need to be done and things will seem to get back to normal; whatever normal is!

            Routines make our life make sense when all around us makes no sense at all.  I once read about a man who had lost his wife in a tragic accident.  The next day he showed up at his usual spot.  His friends asked him “What are you doing here when you should be grieving?”  And he responded that life goes on, his wife would have wanted him to carry on and that the routine of his day was a comfort.  Two young girls I pastored in Texas lost their mother after a long battle with cancer.  They played in their high school soccer game that night.  They wanted to be with their friends and to get back to a routine after so many months of uncertainty and unrest.

            It may seem to be insensitive and uncaring; but it is a way, maybe the best way, to recover.  I know my friend Katy would want me to get back to my routine … and so I will.

            hmmm…..