The Sound and the Fury

Thanks, everybody, for the encouragement.  I truly appreciate it.  My brother Trajan suggested that my last post was either about major burnout or "a cry for attention."  Ha ha.  I told him it was both.  :)  But I didn't mean to sound like I was reprimanding anyone for not commenting.  I don't comment either; I just assume you know I'm there a lot of the time.  Oh, the hypocrisy!  My friend Jacy suggested the little boxes at the end of the post where you can click "like, funny, or I get it."  I like that idea!

I do think we live in a world that is way too focused on instant gratification.  I am the worst, too!  I routinely stop the microwave with 2 or 3 seconds left to go because it seems like it's taking FOREVER!  Something is wrong with that.  I check email at red lights, I read a book in the school pickup line, and I didn't know this morning that Ari was going on a field trip to a baseball game, because I'm always thinking about something else when she's talking.  I know, it's sad. But fifth grade girls tend to ramble!

When I was a high school girl, I had a spot behind my parents' house where I would go to write in my journal.  Down into the gully, across a barbed-wire fence, up a steep hill, along a dirt road and up into the low branches of a sturdy tree.  There I would sit and think, and write.  Even that simple act takes a form of discipline that seems lost, at least for me.  I never go anywhere without my phone.  If I do, I miss a call from the violin shop or a text from my kids at school, or I miss an email that I should respond to right away.  Or I see something worth taking a picture of and wish I had my phone.  So I'm not saying all this technology is bad.  On the contrary, I love it.  I love how much more I'm able to do, and with such ease!  I can find out anything within seconds, just by asking my phone.  I can stay in touch much better with people I love, and life is just plain more fun.

Collectively, though, we are lacking the quiet during which the divine can really speak to us, and I, for one, sometimes tell myself it doesn't matter.  I know God is there and I pray, but I don't listen.  I can't hear.  Life is so fast-paced and so instantaneous, we can get caught up in how many people "like our status" and before we know it, we find ourselves wondering if anyone is really out there.

I didn't know that this was the direction my blog post would take when I sat down to write a wry little explanation of yesterday's post.  But here I am, and I would like you to know that I know God is out there.  He never "likes our status," he never comments on our blog, he doesn't do hashtags, there is no @ in front of His name, but when we turn off the noise and turn to Him, he is there, loving us like He always did, no matter what, and always.