It seemed like good timing. With Jim out of the country for a week I tackled the garage. The same garage that had not held a car in nine months since it was filled with boxes that had been rescued from another garage that had gotten flattened in an ice storm last November. And before they were stored in her garage we had rented a storage unit for all our excess material goods.

I had my daughter with me, to keep me motivated since I knew the task was daunting and my will could waver at any moment.

Did I say that after the ice storm went through the items from the other garage were stored on the ground covered with a tarp until they were removed to our garage after a matter of months. And so there was a lot of black mold and that stuff got pitched. Boxes of water soaked books, brittle and falling apart were also pitched. Household items, clothes, old cameras, picture frames, well, you know, the collections of a lifetime, were given in five of my little truck loads to Good Will. Other items were taken to consignment shops. Some were given back to their rightful owners.

Three boxes of used, dented golf balls, collected from various 'roughs' on Ohio courses, were dragged to the curb for the trash collector. Our sidewalk was filled with bags, boxes, a table missing the glass top - things that had no use or value...to me.

Amazingly the next morning before the trash collectors came Voila! the golf balls were gone. I told my face book friends that I am anticipating a nasty letter from some other wife about what her husband dragged home from my home.

We'll see how much value these things had to Jim when he returns from Ukraine next Sunday.

One surprise as I opened one of the endless boxes. I saw beady little eyes looking up at me from within a coil of wire. Underneath the little mouse were two babies, each about the size of my little finger nail. What to do! We dragged them, box and all, to the curb. When the collectors came the next day we wished them well on their way to the big trash pile in the county. They should be well fed and flourish, and never find their way back here (we refused to consider that the trash truck had a compactor on it).

My purpose, remember, was to get the car in the garage and I almost succeeded. It stuck out about four inches in the back and even though I got most of it in, I couldn't open the door to exit the vehicle. Drat!

Tomorrow is another day. And that's what I'm thinking about.

Well, indeed, it is another day and miracle of miracles, the car is in the garage; I was able both to exit the driver's side and close the overhead garage door.

And that's what I'm thinking about.

"Once upon a time" and "they lived happily ever after" are typical lines in story books.

The time between these two phrases is most often filled with danger of some sort, even death in the case of Snow White, and almost death in the case of Hansel and Gretel.

Many people today are living in the in between times waiting for their happily ever after. The more time that elapses without that time arriving creates a suspicion of belief that it might not ever happen, perhaps a misread clue that they believed the 'happily ever after' was meant for just plain ordinary folk. After suspicion comes suspension of belief, the firm belief that there is no 'happily ever after" that it was indeed just a fairy tale to give false hope to the masses.

And yet they tell me that even the very wealthy have the same belief. They are longing for a 'happily ever after' and when 'things' don't bring that they have no Plan B, nothing to fall back on as if to say, "Wealth didn't bring me happiness but I know (fill in the blank) will."
Sad isn't it? Waiting for something that is always out of reach.

Shopped at Sam's Club yesterday with my friend from Haiti. Her grocery list looks nothing like my grocery list.

We started with one cart; ten minutes later I got a second; ten minutes after that another friend got a flat bed cart to fill. We made one dandy parade up and down the aisles of Sam's Club.

In addition to what we collected, Sam's Club personnel had already pulled the items from another Haitian master list and had twenty carts filled and waiting for us at the exit where a truck was waiting.

A few items we left with were:

32,000 napkins for the school and homes
Tang powder for 550 quarts
600 plastic cups
840 plastic plates
Coffee for 10,000 servings

Returning home I looked at my personal shopping list:

small package of napkins
One small can of Tang
One package of 25 plastic cups
One package of 25 Chinette plates, sectioned
Coffee, instant, one small jar

My supplies need only last well, until they run out. When they do I can drop in at any grocery store and replenish them. Not so for those who live and teach in Haiti. These supplies are for 20 families of teachers and over 350 students...for three months - or more if the boat is delayed, or if a new tariff is added, or ...fill in the blank with any number of natural disasters.

I knew I had it easy but I know that now in a deeper way. And that's what I'm thinking about.

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it."

"Well why don't you ask Him?"

"I'm afraid He would ask me the same question."

-Anonymous