Grocery Stores, College, Movies and Pie

Life is an adventure. This week was a trip.

This is the first week in my entire married life, 31 years to be exact, that I haven’t stepped foot in a grocery store…or ANY store, for that matter. I simply didn’t have time! Thank God for a daughter who was willing and able to help. Or the cupboards would have been bare.

My first week in school after 25 plus years was interesting, stretching, enjoyable to a degree, and busy, busy, busy! The 2 to 1 Ratio is what “they” deem is necessary to have a successful college career. For every one hour spent in class, you are to spend two at home, studying. I’m pretty sure I met that quota this week. Not so sure how realistic it is, unless you are a full-time student who lives at home with your parents and you don’t have to work.

We talked about The Pie of Life in one of our classes. The concept is simply that we all have a 24 hour pie. We divide it into three or four segments in order to reduce our stress and get the most out of our days. I want a bigger pie, please!

I rewarded myself with a movie last night from Redbox. I didn’t have classes yesterday, but I did three cleaning jobs and a few hours of studying. I rented Soul Surfer. I’ve wanted to see that movie for a while. It wasn’t a fun movie to watch, that’s for sure, but it was inspiring.

I could identify with Bethany Hamilton in several aspects of the movie. I haven’t lost an arm or any such limb, but I often feel as if I am flailing around in life with but one arm to keep me afloat. I’ve felt that way often this last year. I felt that way this week, but in a different way. The movie put some things into perspective for me and made things a bit clearer.

We all experience loss. We all have difficult things to deal with. That’s called life. It’s not so much about what happens to us as it is about how we deal with things that come our way. Some people have way more adverse things to deal with than others and in that respect, life isn’t fair. But of this I am sure, we are never given more than we are able to handle, though it often feels that way.

My aim, my vision, my goal, my purpose or whatever term you want to place on it, is to take those things I have gone through and turn them around for good. Or better yet, allow God to do that in my life because that’s what He does best.

And a bigger pie wouldn’t hurt either!