Monday, July 8, 2013

The Unpredictability of Routine

   Even though we had a good week away last week, it is good to get back to some sort of routine. There is safety in routine and comfort in the doing of the same things at the same time and in the same way as I would consider "normal".

   To be sure I do like this normal that I have gotten into over these past few years. The early morning quiet, the stroll about the golf course, even before the guys come to cut the greens, the music of the birds, the sun's rays hitting the tops of the clouds before breaking over the horizon, the time to read, pray and think. These tend to start my day off right.

   Then, as I go about this early morning routine, I think of that Erma Bombeck quote, "Normal is just a setting on your dryer". Then when I write this and think to look up how to spell her name, and read some of her quotes, and laugh, and don't find the quote, and look up the quote on Google and then find out it is a book by Patsy Clairmont, I realize this is what happens to my life most days. What I think I know, I don't, and then as I look for the answer, rabbit trails lead me away from my intended topic, sometimes to an unsuspected destination.

   Even if the things that are on my agenda for the day get done, as I look back on them, I find out that many small parts of this activity or plan have been altered, even as I do them. Just the knowledge that I did some fact checking this morning, and ended up laughing out loud at some sayings, shows me the unpredictability of any routine, however good.

   So, what do I take away from all this?

   Perhaps it is just that I should open my mind and my eyes to things that come into my life, even in the midst of routine. God may want to remind me that every day is a new one, like He did this morning, that every so-called routine is anything but, if I really look.

   And that laughter is a good thing.

   And that routine does not have to be a rut.

   There can be joy in unpredictability, if I stay open to it.

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