Our friends, Steve & Libby, are now back on their native soil - the "Land of Oz" as they sometimes refer to it - and their girls are back to their routines. They were greatly missed from the moment our two vehicles separated on 17 South; Bobby & I turning onto Forman-Bundy Road and our friends continuing on to Savannah, Georgia to visit their son for a few days, then on to Orlando to catch their plane home.
It's so strange, somehow, to go back to every day living again. I didn't realize just how much we ramped up around here getting ready for their long-awaited visit — trying to get Spring cleaning done, redecorating the guest bedroom, stocking up on what I remembered were some of their fav foods. It took at least four weeks of planning to get ready for about 36 hours of being together! It's much like cooking; you spend several hours preparing a meal from scratch (at least most of the time ;p), only to spend 20 minutes eating it. Doesn't seem quite equitable, does it?
I must be "maturing" (what!?)
I've always had a playful nature, always looking for fun wherever I could find it. According to Romans 12: 6, that's because my individual DNA gifting is prophet*. Now this doesn't mean that I go around spouting futuristic words and visions from God; it's just that each gifting has it's particular, and sometimes peculiar, characteristics and traits. These characteristics and traits are always influenced by our upbringing, our journeys through life, our disappointments & victories, etc. But in the end, they remain pretty much the same when you cut through all the external fluff.
Well, back to my point. One of the traits of the prophet gifting is that we appear to be very disorganized. Oh, we have it in our head, but that doesn't translate very well to others. Also, because of our wide range of interests, we can jump from one track to another without hesitation, leaving folks in the dust if we're not careful. It makes us seem unreliable and quirky to those who can't keep up.
Prophets have their own internal clock. I don't wear a watch (haven't for over 30 years now) and go through each day with my own agenda in my head, which drives my über-scheduling husband totally bonkers.
Consequently, I have lived most of my life getting things done at the last moment. My prophet brain says, "Well, I could spend my free 15 minutes working on that, but then if I can't finish and do it right, why bother?" Yet, when I do seem to have the time, a million things will come at me to distract me from my task — things like one of my pooches needs some attention, I can't find my shoes, listening to the wind blow outside my window,and looking up on the internet to find out where belly-button lint comes from (you'd be surprised where that can lead!). All very interesting stuff, but not necessarily vital to life. However, these are some of the delights of an inquiring prophet mind.
Oh, yeah . . . maturing (See what I mean?). What normally would have been a frenzied 24-hour last-ditch effort to make the house presentable, turned out to be a fairly well-organized itinerary that got spread over a four-week period. I was very proud of myself for even thinking about it that far ahead. My usual logic would have been, "If I spend the time to clean now, I'll only have to do it again the day before they get here."
But not this time. This time I did the mature thing . . . I hired my sister to do it!
Growing up, Cathy was always the clean freak (she's a Mercy gifting and they have a place for everything and everything is in it's place — all the time). She never got in trouble over her room, never had to be told to pick up her clothes, always straightened up the bathroom after her shower, etc. You know the type . . . the ones who make us prophets seem inept and sloppy.
Well, what would have taken me more hours (and probably days) than I can imagine to get done, Cathy had completed in less than a day, wiping away the last speck of dust by dinner. I really don't know how she does it. But the place looked great. I had pitched in by cleaning a season's worth of dust and pollen from the eight ceiling fans in the house! My only dread was that we were still in the middle of pine pollen season and knowing that there's no way you can keep it out of the house, I was fearful of there being at least two more inches accumulated by the time Steve and Libby got here.
But not to worry. Cathy was on guard and gave the house a good once-over the day before. My heart was at ease.
Except for my office . . .
I left my office (my "she cave") until last, knowing that it would be my biggest task. I wanted to go through my file cabinet (now why would they look in there?), all my CDs and DVDs with software I've been hanging on to just in case I ever needed to recover an old computer with the likes of Windows98 or play a game like Centipede, Pong, etc. I'd been wanting to get "in there" for the last year, but it was such a daunting task.
Please understand here, that prophets are not sloppy or dirty because of procrastination; they just need some incentive, like knowing that Jesus is coming to dinner tomorrow night. Having a bit of tension and motivation like that really lights a fire under them. Then, they'll stick to the task until the end, not stopping for anything unless they're hungry or thirsty. I began with the file cabinet.
Mostly old customer files and samples of work I've done over the years, owners manuals for items and appliances long-since gone and replaced, tools, old banking files, and some general thing-a-ma-jigs & what-cha-ma-call-its. Getting that cleaned up and reorganized gave me the additional push I needed to hit the rest of the room.
Reorganizing, trashing (I had five garbage bags full of papers and junk - where DOES it all come from?), dusting, etc. If someone had come into the room, all they would have seen was a cloud of activity, much like the old Road Runner cartoons! I probably looked like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comics. I was sweating, dirty, and disheveled. But I was juiced!
It took me 10 hours in my office, but now it's the most functional place (at least, for a prophet) in the house. It now neatly holds all my guitars and amps, music stand and playing chair; a totally reorganized and useful file cabinet; excercise equipment that I can now use (treadmill, Total Gym, and an inversion table); books, gardening magazines and a ton of useful info, TV & DVD player, all my bibles and study materials, office equipment, desk, software for everything imaginable, and last but not least, family photos and knick-knacks. And, it's a great place to sit comfortably with a friend or two and just have a cup of tea and some girl talk. Libby and I did just that.
Wow, it's still clean and feels pretty great . . . and one way or another, I managed to get it all done in a timely fashion.
Yep, I guess I'm finally growing up.
*If you're interested in the study "The Redemptive Gifts of Individuals", I will begin teaching it at a local Bible study on Sunday evening, 4/22/12.
It's so strange, somehow, to go back to every day living again. I didn't realize just how much we ramped up around here getting ready for their long-awaited visit — trying to get Spring cleaning done, redecorating the guest bedroom, stocking up on what I remembered were some of their fav foods. It took at least four weeks of planning to get ready for about 36 hours of being together! It's much like cooking; you spend several hours preparing a meal from scratch (at least most of the time ;p), only to spend 20 minutes eating it. Doesn't seem quite equitable, does it?
I must be "maturing" (what!?)
I've always had a playful nature, always looking for fun wherever I could find it. According to Romans 12: 6, that's because my individual DNA gifting is prophet*. Now this doesn't mean that I go around spouting futuristic words and visions from God; it's just that each gifting has it's particular, and sometimes peculiar, characteristics and traits. These characteristics and traits are always influenced by our upbringing, our journeys through life, our disappointments & victories, etc. But in the end, they remain pretty much the same when you cut through all the external fluff.
Well, back to my point. One of the traits of the prophet gifting is that we appear to be very disorganized. Oh, we have it in our head, but that doesn't translate very well to others. Also, because of our wide range of interests, we can jump from one track to another without hesitation, leaving folks in the dust if we're not careful. It makes us seem unreliable and quirky to those who can't keep up.
Prophets have their own internal clock. I don't wear a watch (haven't for over 30 years now) and go through each day with my own agenda in my head, which drives my über-scheduling husband totally bonkers.
Consequently, I have lived most of my life getting things done at the last moment. My prophet brain says, "Well, I could spend my free 15 minutes working on that, but then if I can't finish and do it right, why bother?" Yet, when I do seem to have the time, a million things will come at me to distract me from my task — things like one of my pooches needs some attention, I can't find my shoes, listening to the wind blow outside my window,and looking up on the internet to find out where belly-button lint comes from (you'd be surprised where that can lead!). All very interesting stuff, but not necessarily vital to life. However, these are some of the delights of an inquiring prophet mind.
Oh, yeah . . . maturing (See what I mean?). What normally would have been a frenzied 24-hour last-ditch effort to make the house presentable, turned out to be a fairly well-organized itinerary that got spread over a four-week period. I was very proud of myself for even thinking about it that far ahead. My usual logic would have been, "If I spend the time to clean now, I'll only have to do it again the day before they get here."
But not this time. This time I did the mature thing . . . I hired my sister to do it!
Growing up, Cathy was always the clean freak (she's a Mercy gifting and they have a place for everything and everything is in it's place — all the time). She never got in trouble over her room, never had to be told to pick up her clothes, always straightened up the bathroom after her shower, etc. You know the type . . . the ones who make us prophets seem inept and sloppy.
Well, what would have taken me more hours (and probably days) than I can imagine to get done, Cathy had completed in less than a day, wiping away the last speck of dust by dinner. I really don't know how she does it. But the place looked great. I had pitched in by cleaning a season's worth of dust and pollen from the eight ceiling fans in the house! My only dread was that we were still in the middle of pine pollen season and knowing that there's no way you can keep it out of the house, I was fearful of there being at least two more inches accumulated by the time Steve and Libby got here.
But not to worry. Cathy was on guard and gave the house a good once-over the day before. My heart was at ease.
Except for my office . . .
I left my office (my "she cave") until last, knowing that it would be my biggest task. I wanted to go through my file cabinet (now why would they look in there?), all my CDs and DVDs with software I've been hanging on to just in case I ever needed to recover an old computer with the likes of Windows98 or play a game like Centipede, Pong, etc. I'd been wanting to get "in there" for the last year, but it was such a daunting task.
Please understand here, that prophets are not sloppy or dirty because of procrastination; they just need some incentive, like knowing that Jesus is coming to dinner tomorrow night. Having a bit of tension and motivation like that really lights a fire under them. Then, they'll stick to the task until the end, not stopping for anything unless they're hungry or thirsty. I began with the file cabinet.
Mostly old customer files and samples of work I've done over the years, owners manuals for items and appliances long-since gone and replaced, tools, old banking files, and some general thing-a-ma-jigs & what-cha-ma-call-its. Getting that cleaned up and reorganized gave me the additional push I needed to hit the rest of the room.
Reorganizing, trashing (I had five garbage bags full of papers and junk - where DOES it all come from?), dusting, etc. If someone had come into the room, all they would have seen was a cloud of activity, much like the old Road Runner cartoons! I probably looked like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comics. I was sweating, dirty, and disheveled. But I was juiced!
 |
| Organized for All My Interests |
Wow, it's still clean and feels pretty great . . . and one way or another, I managed to get it all done in a timely fashion.
Yep, I guess I'm finally growing up.
*If you're interested in the study "The Redemptive Gifts of Individuals", I will begin teaching it at a local Bible study on Sunday evening, 4/22/12.
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