Mishaps and Memories

I wasn’t going to do a blog post this month because I’ve been dedicating all my writing time to getting the book completely polished so I can print it. But when God sends you what He wants shared… you share it!

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about my brain and body struggle with each other. My brain tells me I can do something, but my body begs to differ. I’ve been searching for a dress recently, and all of the pretty dresses I labeled with a gigantic no failed for the same reason. My brain had picked out dresses perfect for a twenty-year-old, but my body wondered what was going on with my brain! 

I have recently started back exercising. Yes, I’m one of those people. The ones who exercise like the world is on fire… for a little bit. LOL! Maybe this time will be the time it sticks with me! Right now, I’m dragging myself out of bed in the early morning hours and to the local gym twice a week for a thirty-minute workout before I go to work. Believe it or not, I’m really enjoying this. Enjoying exercise. This is a perfect oxymoron for sure! 

I started exercising again because of a brain-body miscommunication. Lately, I’m struggling to get out of the car, especially if I’ve been riding for an extended time. Once I’ve arrived, I’ll swing open the car door and attempt to hurriedly exit the car. My brain thinks the body should just hit the ground running, but my poor body screams, “Wait for me!” 

One of the exercise classes that I attend at the gym is a dance class. A friend of mine teaches it, and boy, can she move! I’m always coming in on two wheels just to get to the class, so I usually don’t have to compete with others to get the spot in the back of the room. Or, maybe the other participants leave it open for me because they don’t want to follow my example. I struggle when we do any dance involving moving one leg one way and the opposing arm the other way. My right brain and left brain have completely left the party! I keep going to the class, though, because I’m hoping that some Saturday morning it will start clicking again and my right and left brains will be in cahoots again.  

I’ve diagnosed my brain and body feud as menopause brain, of which I’ve also decided has no cure. I have laughed so hard at a friend I work with this week. Feeling the struggle of getting back to the grind of life after having a week off for Easter has proved to be a challenge for more than just me. In a midafternoon crash, she dashed into the faculty room to grab coffee. Finding none, she decided to make some. Quickly, she prepared the coffee and returned to her room, waiting for it to brew. 

As my friend’s students entered her room, she noticed some chaos in the faculty room. I’m sure my friend made a delicious pot of coffee, but no one could have any because she had forgotten to put the pot under the spout. All the delicious coffee flowed onto the counter, down the cabinets, and under the drink machine. She makes me feel so normal! What’s funny is that this is my second friend who has forgotten to add the coffee pot. Do you think I’m contagious?

This past week, I experienced an epic brain and body miscommunication. I had gone to my sister’s in Charleston for a few days. She and I were walking out on the dock to enjoy a few hours of sunshine. About midway out on the dock, her hat floats off her head and over the rails into the marsh muck. It wasn’t a pretty hat. In fact, I voiced a few times that it might have been the ugliest hat I’d ever seen. Nonetheless, she liked it and had paid money for it. So I felt compelled to retrieve it for her. She wanted to leave it, but no my brain said I could use the carpenter’s ladder and get it back for her. 

I dragged the ladder out on the dock, heaved it onto the rails, and watched as it sank a foot or two into the muck. I even heard my brain say, “Well, that’s not good.” Then I climbed over the rail and down the ladder. The whole time my sister stood on the dock preaching to me all the reasons this wasn’t a good idea. Finally, I was on the last step and bent down to swipe up the hat. But, just as I bent down, the ladder sank another foot or two causing me to lose my balance. (Maybe my dance teacher can find some moves to improve my balance. LOL) Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of a mucky mess full of oyster shells. How I didn’t slice my foot off, I will never know. 

I wonder if there is a chief chaos angel up in heaven. If there is, I’m going to go ahead and declare his job as the best job ever! I envision him sitting at a round table with several junior angels, a huge digital board like they have on NCIS, and he’s asking who is on the chaos list for the day. I’m certain they laugh all day. Like I said, best job ever. 

My grandmother always subscribed to Reader’s Digest. I loved reading the funnies in the section, Laughter is the Best Medicine. The title has stuck with me for many years now, and as someone who loves to laugh, I have to agree with it. I recently lost two people I cared about. One was my uncle, and the other was a fella who went to church with me. Something they both had in common was that they were always laughing, smiling, and joking. At my uncle’s celebration of life, so many folks from his church shared funny stories about him. For some reason, I thought he was only funny with us. I didn’t realize that it was just the way he was. And what an incredible way to be.  

Thinking back on these moments of chaos, laughter, and the perpetual tug-of-war between my brain and body, I’m reminded of the importance of embracing life with all its imperfections. We may not always be able to keep up with our own expectations, but that’s okay. In fact, it’s those moments of miscommunication and the occasional slips into the muck that create the funniest, most cherished memories. As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” Acknowledging that every moment, whether perfectly planned or blissfully chaotic, has its place helps us appreciate the journey while giving us plenty of laughter along the way.