Our little gravel road was hopping with activity at the crack of dawn today. The garbage truck came by before 6:00, and I was out walking by 7:15. The yearling doe was by the bridge when I got there. Either she snuck out when her mom wasn’t looking or Mom didn’t ground her forever. One way or the other, the two of us did some more bonding during a lovely photo shoot (I was camera-ready – hooray!) before she got skittish and ran into the woods.
Good thing we were both early birds. A few minutes later, the road grader lumbered by, and its operator lowered the blade. He’s been pretty scarce this spring, so I forgave him for shattering the morning quiet. The man barely had time to work up a good head of steam before the recycling truck came from the other direction. Watching them decide how to get past one another on a humpbacked gravel road so washed out it’s down to one narrow lane was most entertaining.
I had to alter my route to stay in front of and/or behind the road grader, and with all the interruptions it was hard to keep track of my goal, which was to walk four miles. The experience made me think about yesterday. The fam was home, the phone rang non-stop, a four-year-old entertained me for half an hour or I entertained him – I’m not sure which, emails interrupted my writing time, the doorbell kept ringing and bridesmaids streamed through the kitchen and up the stairs for dress fittings with Anne.
As I got less and less writing done on the day I’d hoped to write more and more, I grew testy. “Life would wonderful,” I muttered, “if it weren’t for all the people.” The more frustrated I grew, the more similar thoughts crossed my grinchy little brain, and the more I lost track of my goal: to show Christ to people, first by the way I live, and then through my writing. And if I don’t live right, why do I assume I can write right?
Today, thanks to three big trucks and one small doe, the goal is visible again, and that’s good. Accomplishing it won’t be so easy. But I’m going to try. What else can I do?
