On Faith and Family: Owl enthusiasts are not real and everything is super scary
–I’m the worst about keeping up with the news. Mainly because every time I try to be a grown-up and actually know what’s going on in the world, I find out I don’t like it and instead resort to watching Curious George with my kids and comforting myself with the fact that all that little monkey ever has to worry about is learning how to plant tomatoes and count by two’s. Lucky.
I wouldn’t say I was necessarily sheltered more than most kids growing up, I think I just really, really loved being a kid and by default became oblivious to some degree to the world around me. Needless to say, it was a bit of a rude awakening when I got a job and had to “grow up.”
Full disclosure, the story that I am about to tell you is completely true and you are officially given the license to mock me for the rest of my life, along with my husband who has never let me live this down. Why do I give you permission to laugh at me, you wonder? Because laughing at myself is one of my favorite pastimes and what kind of a jerk would I be if I denied you that same pleasure?
Okay, here it goes:
So, when my husband and I first got married, we had to travel frequently to L.A. for his work. During one of our travels, we got in late and needed to pull over to find a place to eat. My husband asked where I wanted to go. I asked if we could go to Hooters because I wanted to see how owl enthusiasts could decorate a restaurant.
Yeah. I know.
Do you ever try so hard to shield yourself from what’s really going on in your life or in the world around you that you forget that not knowing doesn’t change a thing?
On the same token, my husband and I have been trying to teach our sons the game of hide and seek. My three-year-old kind of gets it and delights himself in hiding under the covers, every time. However, when we start counting to ten, my two-year-old son Colton usually stays fixed exactly where he is and covers his eyes, all the while wearing a sly I-can’t see-you-so-you’re-never-gonna-find-me smile on his face. It’s precious! But one of these days, he’s going to have to learn the lesson we all do; just because you cover your eyes, it doesn’t make your problems go away. Man, am I a Debbie downer or what, right?
Anyways, I guess to drive it home I just wanted to reach out to you all and say, I get it. All of us, especially this year are going through really scary, hard, complicated, throw the blanket over our head kind of situations and there’s no magic phrase that will make it all better.
But, as I’ve had to remind myself lately, there is an all-knowing, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace just a prayer away and we can take comfort in the fact that, even when we don’t have our lives figured out or we can’t control what happens next that God sits on the throne and wants us to take refuge and shelter in him.
Hang in there, friends, and don’t forget to look up!
