What if life were full of WOW! moments? Wouldn’t life be fun? Wouldn’t we all be going around with silly grins on our faces. Not silly like we are stupid, rather, silly like we love small beautiful things! Or big awesome things… Some examples of what makes me grin and say WOW!:
Chuck and I have been watching for birds at the bird feeder… I’m waiting for song birds, but any bird is good. Then: there were black birds, 3 doves and a great gray heron…. The doves were waiting for the black birds to "back off" and the heron was "just hanging out"… The heron leaned way out over the water, very still, watching the water. Then we realized the birds at the feeder were shaking it up and seed was falling onto the dock and into the water. Suddenly the heron dived in and came up with a fish horizontally in his mouth. Horizontally is important because he then has to go through some maneuverings to get that fish head down in the vertical position so it can slide down his gullet smoothly, so its scales don’t hurt the bird. Since it was a small fish, a simple throw and catch was all the heron needed. We whooped as he gobbled and swallowed. Poor fish. Like Jonah, swallowed alive. Ick…. The birds continued. This happened again the following night. Probably the same heron, but now he is across the canal on neighbor Connie and John’s dock. Watching, hanging way over the edge. "Hurry up," I whispered, "it’s getting dark!!!" Swoop! His great wings pulled tight he dived and came up with a fish that looked to be 10 inches long; big enough to filet…. He stood in the water near the seawall. (We have discovered it is pretty shallow near the seawall that the long legged birds can stand there.) He was now looking up at the grass. Chuck said, "He has to get up into the grass because he doesn’t want to drop the fish." Pretty smart Chuck…. a few minutes of looking at the grass in Connie and John’s back yard, and then, leap with a great flap of wings and a little shaking to dry out his wings. Ah! now the fun begins. He juggled and juggled, dropped the fish a few times. "Hurry!, I said. Now it was dark and we could hardly see him. There it goes, he finally got that fish to stop wiggling, and gulp, that fish is history. In the heron’s belly. Chuck thinks he had to wait for that one to die because it was so big. (like in the Country and Western song by the Dixie Chucks… "and Earl had to die"…). Oh that’s awful. Now the next WOW moment!
I volunteered to "help" the Sacristan at church…. HELP the Sacristan. Well I think you know how that goes. Last night I unlocked the church, turned on the lights and air conditioning and set up for vigil Mass. Vigil Mass is the Mass of the next day, but at night so people who work can attend. We are celebrating the Feast of All Saints. I set up according to a rather thorough and good list. Always give me written instructions… I enjoy lists! 5 chalices for the wine, 4 dishes for the Sacred bread. This will become the Body and Blood of Jesus when the Priest consecrates it. Altar cloths, towels and dishes of water for those giving out Communion all set up. Pray with the lectors and ministers who will process in, then go sit down. In they walked and Mass began. At Communion, the altar server (Nell) looked over at me with a question mark on her face? There weren’t enough servers for the number of chalices and dishes I put out. I didn’t know… So I let it unfold, which is usually seamless in our Church as we have a lovely priest with a forgiving nature! In the end, the priest had to put away 2 dishes of consecrated hosts and drank a full cup of consecrated wine. What happened? Well…. Despite the list, whoever schedules people only scheduled 4 wine servers and 2 Communion servers. It’s always something! How about let me know? Every time I serve I learn a new lesson (take the stoppers off the little cruets of wine and water before handing them to the Priest, put the challices on the altar for the priest to fill, look at how many are serving and only put out that many bowls and chalices.) What else???? Wash up, turn off the lights. It was now 8:30pm and pitch dark. OH! The alarm. Of course there are 3 choices… What button to push? I chose "Exit and Leave" Sounds good to me… I pushed the button and it began to click. Run to the other side of the room, turn off the entry room lights, open and close the big wooden door (why do churches always have big wooden doors???). Lock the door. Then I peeked in at the alarm. No red lights (I think…. ) Oh brother. Half way home (it’s a 5 minute drive), I thought, "Did I check the lock?" Turned around and tested the door. It didn’t open and there were no police sirens. I think my exit was safe. WHEW! … WOW! Heaved a sigh. I think the cops will not be coming this time. I hope. What an awesome, big responsibility serving the Lord!!! Go serve. Gird your loins, say a prayer, and leap!!! God bless you!
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