I was at a community event in Lexington, KY last night that is locally called Picnic with the Pops; an evening outdoors with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra and the featured guest who sang a lot of Frank Sinatra tunes.
Waiting to exit these big events is not my cup of tea but about once a year I gather my resolve along with (this year) a summer slaw and I persevered my way through a table of picnic food and at this locale, adult beverages are allowed. The Clever Food Award at our table was a shrimp boil served up in individual cups. Each cup had half a boiled potato in the bottom, covered with fresh off-the-cob corn, a piece of smoked sausage and a boiled shrimp artfully perched on the rim of the cup, lightly sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning.
Arriving about 6:30 gives you plenty of time to schlep your picnic gear and food to the assigned area but this event had a great boon to the crowd by having Boy Scouts standing by with garden carts to do the schlepping. What a great thing for everyone concerned!
There were table decorating contests with the tables who contribute the most to the particular charity of choice being the closest to the stage. It is most fun to walk the grounds, weaving your way in and out of tables and conversations, silly costumes and look at what other people brought to eat (prime rib!) and how they act as the evening wears on.
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I only saw one small child in attendance so I said to my friend "See, THIS is what grown-ups do when the kids are not around"!
Someone had just recognized my walking friend, pulled her to their table which was decorated to match the concert theme Live From Las Vegas. "Here, roll the dice, get an even or odd number on either dice and you win the opportunity to do a jello shot". Seriously, jello shots? Just like it sounds, it is jello made with vodka, gin or tequila, poured into small plastic containers...looked like the size you get from a restaurant if you get salad dressing "to go". The technique is to run a stir-stick around the inside of the cup to loosen the jello from the sides of the container, squoosh the sides together and let it fall out into your mouth and then you glug it down in one gulp. I kept expecting the sides of her neck to bulge out. She was quite adept at what may not have been her first experience with it and all the while, I just had to smile.
These are not out of control adults (though there might have been some that should have refrained from driving later on), these were adults simply having fun in the moment. It was one of those perfect evenings about 75 degrees, a slight breeze that ruffled hemlines and togas, live music from a talented young man who sang a lot of my parent's generation of show tunes, but because he made fun of the crowd not having anyone under 40 in attendance, I won't mention his name. That is the point...there are no children about and it's not nice to bash the crowd who pays your salary in any given night.
It was a night to have a chance to just "be". Visit with your neighbor, introduce yourself to your neighbor, try a new food.
It was a night to have a chance to just "be". Visit with your neighbor, introduce yourself to your neighbor, try a new food.
I do not normally care for the very strong taste of brie cheese but someone had drizzled honey and toasted pecans over it and that was a pretty good combination of gooey and smoky. My group was a singles group that I join in with about twice a year. It is already happening that most the people in the group are women so other than friendship it is not a great group to meet men with, though for the males who come, the odds are about 8 to 1.
My sunflowers are blooming; but no giant-headed ones germinated. I have multi-striped, chocolate brown and lemon yellow. They are such a joy and a friendly flower. Friday night, I had "the gals" over for artichoke and fresh tomato-basil pizza and wine to quaff on the back porch. We watched the hummers come for their evening meal and were glad for that moment in time, to have each other around the table on a summer's eve.
The "Tweens" from one season to another and not quite either are upon us. School has started locally, the dawn is longer in coming in the morning and faster to arrive at night. It is already mid-August...where did the summer go? We had such a long season this year too, having had real spring to arrive in March.
How wonderful is that? Grace abounds!
Sometimes, the parenthetical expressions in life are not good. "She looks good (for someone who has had The Sickness)" or "Yes, my job is still there (it is not a blessing any more but I have not found anything else yet), or "Yes, her daughter is fine (though if she had a life and job of her own and were in her own house with her three kids, it would be a lot better)".
Sometimes, the parenthetical expressions in life are not good. "She looks good (for someone who has had The Sickness)" or "Yes, my job is still there (it is not a blessing any more but I have not found anything else yet), or "Yes, her daughter is fine (though if she had a life and job of her own and were in her own house with her three kids, it would be a lot better)".
Even though though the parenthesis may overcome the day-to-day of where we would like to be living and currently are not, grace is the substance that makes it better, makes it tolerable and even makes hope a reality. When we are without God and without hope, we are of all men, most miserable (I Corinthians 15:19).
This is what I think. I think people who say they do not believe in God, 99% believed, past-tense, at one time. I think that they may have had a devastating situation where they felt God wronged them, did not come through, perhaps they were a victim of the evil one and mis-lay the evil of the world at the wrong feet or feel they never get answers to prayer so why bother, but deep down, they believe in something outside of themselves.
For my friend who said she does not Do Spiritual, was there not a great internal cry that went to the heavenlies when her daughter was missing and on the streets to take care of her and bring her home? When she did come home, was there not a cry of thanksgiving?
I think it is all in the heart, in the attitude of gratitude. The old boyfriend who had lived more than a dozen years after having brain cancer, did not find time in his busy life of doing nothing to be thankful for those years. He boasted that he never blamed God for his Terrible Brain Thing, which is all well and good, but neither did he praise or thank Him for the life he lived and could have lived a lot more fully with the gift he was given, but did not.
Hoarded like the gold of Silas Marner, he could have been all the richer and fuller in his life if he had gotten outside of himself, first in thanks, and then in service to something other than himself, but he did not. Ultimately, it was that "all about me" that caused the final division and me moving on.
This all circles around back to grown-ups enjoying picnic food, music in the park (and maybe some day, I'll be the French horn player up there on the stage) and even a jello shot. It is marking time with something joyful, beautiful, friendly and simple.
In every thing, give thanks...not that bad stuff has happened, but that there is a way out, that there can be a blessing, that there can simply be praise and thanks, that you can simply be, today.
Start with a sunflower.
