Living in the Upside Down

It’s the strangest thing…I was thinking about how I couldn’t wait (like CAN.NOT.WAIT.) for it to be football season just last night, but how I wished the time would SLOW down as this morning’s events just snowballed into a tornado.  You know those kinds of AM shenanigans–NOTHING goes right (especially having to wake up with the roosters) and Murphy’s Law has martial law which in turn has formed the coup of “Operation Overthrow Sanity.”  (Sorry neighbors if my daily “raised” voice woke y’all up.  Hope y’all get a little nap this afternoon before the “raised” voice chorus starts up again around dusk.) I needed the time to slow up so I could get everylittlething done and not have the kids get tardied up on the 13th day of school.

But isn’t that just the way we (yep, y’all too) are?  We want time to hurry up or simmer down.  Rarely does it seem time is behaving in or cooperating with our human constraints.

Time slow down!:

–as I watch my babies lightening fast grow up

–at the start of  nap time

–for the interval between bills that inevitably come

–when there’s just a few seconds left on the clock and your team NEEDS a touchdown

–when a diagnosis is terminal

Time speed up!:

–when the “your package is out for delivery” email shows up in your inbox

–as I’m waiting in the line at the “WalMarts”

–the two minutes that elapse to see if two little lines show up on a stick (that’s not me now, you yoyo’s, but I’ve been there)

–expecting some news of some sort–be it test results or arrivals or job applications

–losing those extra 10 (or 45) pounds or so (I mean, I worked out twice and am paying for a gym membership, come on, fat cells!)

–when dinner is cooking and my belly button is rubbing a blister on my backbone (just kidding–see above.  Those two parallel points have a long way to go to touch.  Loooong way.  But y’all know: hangry)

It’s break pumping or screeching rubber.  We rarely sit in between.  Coasting seems the appropriate pace…letting time be time and accept what it is and live in the here and now for better or worse, with knowledge that both good and bad are in it all.  (Side note: perhaps that’s why the literal coast is so appealing to many of us.  Because we were made to coast…breathe in, breathe out, letting the waves of the ocean be our pace car…but we want our vacations seaside to go slow, no?)

But also, in this big beautiful world, I see other examples of this disjointedness.  For instance, we judge judge judge and criticize criticize criticize others for not being __________________ or being too _________________ or being a total blankety-blank.

He doesn’t love enough.

I would never do what she did!

He is the most inconsiderate individual.

She is a blazing self righteous jerk.

I can’t believe he said that!  Or I can, but how could he?

Yet then how we preach: compassion, acceptance, forgiveness, LOVE.  And y’all, we aren’t seeing the forest for the trees.  A wise man (known as my father) once told me as I was complaining about someway someone was treating me, “Remember, when you point the finger at someone, you’ve got three pointing back at you.”  Zinger.  But try it.  Right now.  Point your finger and see the three pointing back at you.  It’s been a pretty good visual for me as I’ve grown older and seen that the sticks I’m picking out in others are often branches made from the same huge logs within me.  If perhaps you can’t see or don’t see or won’t see those things in yourself, try offering a little grace someway somehow.  Because the Good Lord knows He offers copious amounts to you.  Every day.  And He’s got plenty for me, too, cause He knows I need it.  (Probably every minute of every day.  Let’s say I keep Jesus in business in that department.)

In other words, don’t drink Haterade and expect to be hydrated.

One last observation in the Upside Down for this post:

Why do we treat those we love the worst?  (See the first paragraph above for an example if you don’t understand.)  I mean, I know why we do.  Yet what an oxymoronic thing it is!  We do it because our most loved ones are comfortable, safe, present, ours, and tell us the oft unwanted and/or unsolicited truths about ourselves.  What a tragedy, though.  Those we love the deepest should be the most cherished, most respected, and treated with abundant patience and kindness.  It’s just weird how we human beings are in this world.  Strange things, we are.

Now I know there are many more oddities and juxtapositions around this sphere perched in space, but I don’t have time to think of anymore because I’ve got to hurry up and get these kids to bed so that I can go relax in my own bed and have a long night’s sleep. Hope the time slows down once I’m there…