Tuesday, March 11, 2008
More Sail Adjusting
A few days ago I wrote that since we can't direct the wind, we might need to "adjust the sails", and I think it's time to do it again. I had been quite upset that my car door wouldn't unlock when I needed to get home from work after midnight in an awful snow storm. Walking up to my front door after that felt so safe and good, until I discovered that the door to the house wouldn't open either. Once inside I let those problems melt away like the ice outside. Tomorrow I would get the car door lock repaired. After all, it was just a problem that could be fixed. No need to dwell on it more.
Yesterday I got the car to the mechanic, and a few hours later drove it home. But the first time I needed to lock or unlock it, couldn't get it to work. Drove back to the repair shop, and learned, after already spending $85.61, more parts alone would cost about $200.00, and the mechanic's labor is even more.
This is where the sail trimming comes in. The locks on the other three doors on the car work fine, and I can lock the problem child one each time with my hand. To get back in the car all I have to do is open the door behind it, and lean forward enough to open the broken one enough so I can walk around the car, and get in. There's just no point in upsetting myself about this any more.
But what's a sail trimming, if you don 't do it well. I have decided to apply it to several things. I got a phone call from a son who took my other computer to a repair place. Even if it couldn't be repaired, I wanted to know what made it not work, and learned that numerous viruses got in it. As a nurse, that ugly word causes much concern, but when it was my computer some awful people infected with money hungry "germs", I just plain got worse than a little angry. All my old post writing machine needs is a new hard drive, and I've been going crazy trying to learn the new computer's Vista program.
If I am anything, being good at adapting to problems tops the list. I still have the boxes the new computer came in, and some day I may even deal with it again. But I'm a little stretched out from that costly car door lock that still doesn't work, and won't, unless I spend a few hundred dollars more. Clint Eastwood isn't the only person on earth who needs to know his limitations.
A few days ago, to encourage, and cheer me up, daughter, Bev, at "Scratchin' the Surface" sent a little note that sets where I'll see it often. In it she lists many things we sometimes must deal with, and troublesome and costly broken car door locks, and computer programs I was driving myself crazy about, are not important enough to waste any more brain power on. They don't even make the top ten list. Unpacked boxes, and windows still needing curtains won't ruin the sails on my little boat either.
I read somewhere that cancer patients are encouraged to write out grateful lists, to dwell on the positive, that a negative attitude interferes with their healing. The next post you'll read from Flight Song will not be about things all of us may sometimes have to deal with. When the apostles worried that their boat might sink, Jesus reminded them who controls the storms. Mine isn't even a gale.
Yesterday I got the car to the mechanic, and a few hours later drove it home. But the first time I needed to lock or unlock it, couldn't get it to work. Drove back to the repair shop, and learned, after already spending $85.61, more parts alone would cost about $200.00, and the mechanic's labor is even more.
This is where the sail trimming comes in. The locks on the other three doors on the car work fine, and I can lock the problem child one each time with my hand. To get back in the car all I have to do is open the door behind it, and lean forward enough to open the broken one enough so I can walk around the car, and get in. There's just no point in upsetting myself about this any more.
But what's a sail trimming, if you don 't do it well. I have decided to apply it to several things. I got a phone call from a son who took my other computer to a repair place. Even if it couldn't be repaired, I wanted to know what made it not work, and learned that numerous viruses got in it. As a nurse, that ugly word causes much concern, but when it was my computer some awful people infected with money hungry "germs", I just plain got worse than a little angry. All my old post writing machine needs is a new hard drive, and I've been going crazy trying to learn the new computer's Vista program.
If I am anything, being good at adapting to problems tops the list. I still have the boxes the new computer came in, and some day I may even deal with it again. But I'm a little stretched out from that costly car door lock that still doesn't work, and won't, unless I spend a few hundred dollars more. Clint Eastwood isn't the only person on earth who needs to know his limitations.
A few days ago, to encourage, and cheer me up, daughter, Bev, at "Scratchin' the Surface" sent a little note that sets where I'll see it often. In it she lists many things we sometimes must deal with, and troublesome and costly broken car door locks, and computer programs I was driving myself crazy about, are not important enough to waste any more brain power on. They don't even make the top ten list. Unpacked boxes, and windows still needing curtains won't ruin the sails on my little boat either.
I read somewhere that cancer patients are encouraged to write out grateful lists, to dwell on the positive, that a negative attitude interferes with their healing. The next post you'll read from Flight Song will not be about things all of us may sometimes have to deal with. When the apostles worried that their boat might sink, Jesus reminded them who controls the storms. Mine isn't even a gale.
