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Just One More Thing

God's One More Thing

We once knew someone who always had “one more thing.”   It was so random, at times, and then years later I notice my kids saying it too.  That might be because we started using the phrase, when its a joke, it’s fun!

Of course the consummate one-more-thing style belongs only to the infamous and rather off-putting tactic of Lt. Frank Columbo (tv show for old people), who would start to leave the room and then quickly turn and throw in one more question as if he just thought of something.  Apparently this strategy worked well for him because the tv script writers made sure he got a lot of new information throwing a “Just one more thing” question out there.  But in real life – it’s annoying, unless of course your family has made a joke of it.  Well, sometimes, that is still annoying but I will reward the attempt at humor!

Thoughts on the one-more-things of life:

1 – Super annoying one-more-things are like fine print.  This is a comment or a question that challenges celebration, postpones the party or kills the joy.  Also literally the actual fine print because now, at my age, it requires me to find a pair of reading glasses.

2 – Never ending demands of life are incessant ‘one-more-things.  There is always a dentist or doctor appointment looming, a car maintenance or repair required, an animal on farm in need of food or water, a room or space in need of cleaning, a child in need of learning, a family in need of food, my body in need of sleep.

3 – One more thing is even in the Bible!   Paraphrasing the story Sheila style.  This guy goes to Jesus, and says, “Good teacher, what do I need to do to have eternal life.”

Jesus basically says,  “you tell me, what have you learned about that since you were a wee child?”

The man replies, “Uh…..ok, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus says, “Bingo – now go do it!”

The man responds to justify his now rather pedantic question, “Wait!  One more thing….who exactly IS my neighbor?”  Clearly this is huge.  We have to understand this very, very important concept so that we make sure we don’t waste time loving the wrong person.  We should probably form a Bible study group to discuss it in greater detail…

Then Jesus gives us the famous story of the Good Samaritan – and BAM!  He turns to “One-more-thing” and says, “now who was the neighbor?”

I bet one-more-thing wished he had shut his mouth!   For the unfamiliar, the Samaritans were not a charming well-loved people.  It wasn’t the name of a hospital back then, they were considered half-breeds and often referred to as dogs by the Jewish people.  The Jews did not love the Samaritans….if he had kept his mouth shut, he might have been able to walk away in ignorance and think he was only required to love the people living on his street.  But no!  Now he has to love the ‘unlovable’ in his mind – AND so must we!

4 – There are some wonderful one-more-things though!

The moments when our children come back to hug us                                                                                    for no real reason.

When your spouse hugs you spontaneously                                                                                                           or grabs your hand for a moment.

When a friend calls out of the blue                                                                                                                                just to say ‘hi’

My favorite one-more-thing is at the end of the day                                                                                          when God gives us an amazing sunset.

May your day be blessed with all sorts of good one-more-things sprinkled among the mundane and tedious ones!

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21 Falls & My failure to stay upright on the farm!

My sisters and I did a hike in Tucson Arizona when one or both of my sisters were attending the University at the time.  The hike is actually called ‘Seven Falls’, but I remember it as ’21 Falls’ because there was actually a lot of falling happening between the three of us.

I am a bit prone to exaggeration, I might just be remembering 7 falls x 3 hikers = 21 !  In any case, on this hike I was the last one to fall on the return trip.  I think we were pretty close to the end of the trail, and I remember being so disgusted when my youngest sister quipped, “Now we can call it 7 falls!” because I was indeed the 7th fall of the hike.

That was Tucson, THIS is the Farm!   I’ve had a lot of tumbles over my lifetime thus far, but for some reason – the spills seem to be more concentrated in this period of my life that we will call the “farm years” – or maybe the “farm falls”? I’ve definitely achieved 21 falls here without my sisters help!

I’ve been completely pulled off my feet by dogs on leads (border collies), knocked on my butt by dogs not on leads (Great Pyrenees), I’ve even tripped over the leash of my daughters yorkie-poo.

I’ve stepped into holes in the field and stumbled to my knees or wrenched my back.

I’ve been out and about in the dark, putting animals away and tripped over pallets, or food containers, or various implements.  I think I fall a lot more than I realize, I am just usually able to stumble into a recovery of some sort.  I bet the video would be quite amusing.  My theme song, needs to include some ‘falling music’ – I’m thinking “I fall to pieces – Patsy Cline”, or even older “I Didn’t Slip, I wasn’t pushed, I fell” written by Eddie Pola and George Wyle.  I listened to the performance by Bing Crosby – love it!  Then there is Tom Petty’s “Free Falling”  That would work too!  So many choices….

I’ve always claimed that I have a body awareness issue, that is: I don’t know where my body stops and the rest of the world starts.  I am CONSTANTLY bumping into walls and doors, like pinball making lots of points!  Ding-ding ding-ding!  That is a reference for older folks – I don’t think kids play pinball anymore.

So pretty much at all times, I have bruises on my legs or arms that I usually have no idea where i got them.  Then one day, I’ll walk thru the living room and slam into the side of the sofa table and think, “oh that’s where that bruise came from – now I’m getting a new one!”

I’m writing about this, because yesterday I was trying to bring the water hose around to the back yard.  It was stuck on something, I tromped along the hose to trace the problem and it turns out it was stuck on my goat!  She had stepped thru a loop and somehow got a curl of the hose around her body and one leg.  I freed her and started pulling the hose again, and once again it stopped pulling.  I turned around and she was standing on it, prancing around and fixing to get caught in it again.  THIS is where I made a big mistake!

Here is the lesson:  When you turn around, for any reason, it could be to check on an animal, to check what’s behind you, to see if an animal is still chasing you…whatever.  STOP MOVING!  So dingbat that I was, I turned behind while I was still moving.  I wasn’t walking fast but I was walking backward to watch the goat.   I tripped over a partially assembled project that is in front of our detached garage and landed flat on my back.  I swear, the weirdest part of these falling incidents is during the actual fall.  It feels like slow motion and there is not a thing you can do to stop yourself.  I landed on the wood, one elbow scraped on the cement.  Good thing I got my tetanus shot from the last fall.

Here’s some observations – as if I haven’t made enough already!

1 – With my body awareness challenge, I’m already injury prone.  I will NEVER have a bruise free body.  Kissing my modeling career goodbye.

Since moving to our farm, there have been many times where i didn’t wear a skirt or dress to church because I look like a kid still learning to ride a bike with scabby knees!  BUT wearing pants actually puts fabric right against that knee, so it’s only done with lots of bandages.

2 – I am working on the wrong goals!  I keep saying I need to declutter, I need to organize, I need to clean….How about, I need to stay upright!

3 – An object in motion DOES INDEED stay in motion, especially when you trap its feet in a pallet, a hole, or a pile of wood.  For heaven’s sake, when I’m not looking where I’m going I need to stop moving!  Note: This would not have saved me from the dog falls – quite a few of those I was pulled off my feet and wasn’t moving at the time.

4 – This puts a whole new meaning to a verse, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ Our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”  Jude 1:24-25 (NIV)

This is powerful, I don’t want to diminish the deep aspects of this passage.  Yes, it is wonderful that God joyfully presents us without fault without stain of sin.  It is amazing to realize that the all powerful, mighty God of the universe is thrilled to do so.  I also realize that the “keep you from stumbling” is referring to falling into sin…but still…I could use a ‘keep from stumbling” in both aspects!

So here’s to an uprightness of both character AND my beat-up body!   Cheers!