7:15? I never sleep until 7:15.
Well, we must have been tired, Q says comfortably, stretching carefully so as not to topple Noodle from her perch on his chest, where she is watching his face intently. She is attempting to transmit thought telepathically: Noodle wants her breakfast in the morning, and wonders what's taking us so long today.
Slower in the morning -- I can no longer count on long, quiet hours of prayer and writing between 4am and when everyone else arises. Is this sloth or true weariness? Should I be struggling to subdue it or assume my body is telling me something worth hearing and give in?
7:15 and I haven't sent out a "Howdy do?" let alone a "Let us bless the Lord," I tell Q.
They'll be all right, he says. Send it when you get there. And soon it is out, and the answering "Thanks be to God" begin to appear. They are like the roosters I used to hear in the mornings when I was young; another day on the Farm begins.
Can't do what you used to do the way you used to do it? Maybe you can do it another way. Noodle looks uncomfortable when I talk about there being more than one way to skin a cat besides putting hot butter down its ears, but it is true: there are many paths to the things we really want to do and be. God specializes in many paths: over and over in scripture, human beings ruin things and God provides another way. God never runs out of ways in which to allow us to grow into his image. God's imagination is bigger than ours, but ours are better than most of us think they are, once we get them in gear.
Don't give up: pay attention. There's something you haven't thought of yet, some alternative way -- or maybe an alternative goal -- that will bless you every bit as much as the one you thought was the only one you could have.
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