quite a day

I was having a lovely day—o.k., the weather wasn’t giving anything but still. I spent the morning with my son and niece and then the three of us had lunch with my sister-in-law. She is a delight and I regularly thank God for my brother’s wisdom and good taste in marrying her.
I got a later start after lunch than I intended which began the ‘rushed’ segment of the day. Not bad, not good, I just had certain time constraints that weren’t yielding. But I got to the happy place of spending time with some people who are really dear to me.
And we were having a good time, not all light and breezy, some things were more personal; but friends, food and good writing against the backdrop of our mutual love for God. Those things stayed but we got some bad news. One of the members of our group was ‘done wrong’ in the eyes of God, humanity and, in this case, the law. We all grappled to know how to best support her, and I can’t say if we helped or not, but we love her and we’re praying for her and that God will ‘deal with’ the other party (hear this in an ominous tone).
One of my friends was angry and disappointed with humanity and made some comments that I didn’t know how to react to but I’ll have to clarify later today. One of my friends was furious. Anger is a healthy response, the downside is that she doesn’t have a ‘working peace with anger’—and this phrase will sound more than bizarre to her.
Later, as I was unwinding and sorting through the day, my husband called down the stairs—our son had been sick, and had not made it to the bathroom. That’s one sick, shaky kid plus a puddle of fragrant vomit. But as we started cleaning, I discovered it wasn’t a tidy puddle, it had splattered, and my son’s floor is covered with stacks of pokemon cards he was sorting and books. Watching me try to clean and save his stuff (though the copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is actually mine), my son said, “This is tragic,” with a resigned slump to his already tired body.
It took us 25 minutes to get it cleaned up and him back in bed. We left him with a trash bag in a small can, just in case, and an hour later he made good use of it. I took that out but by then the combined smells were making me nauseous. I did lie in bed and wonder if this was just a bumpy day or spiritual warfare and I prayed accordingly—my sense of nausea lifted and my son made it through the night.
So, that’s how we started the summer. Not exactly auspicious but I’m surrounded by people I really love and that is priceless.