Friday, November 2, 2012

Beauty, Prison, Good Music – and it’s only 8 am!


I woke up (for good) this morning at 5:30. It is now 8 am and I have already seen unspeakable beauty, a near prison, and heard some great music.

4 AM
I have no idea what is so special about that moment on the clock, but I wake up every morning at that time (well, at 1:15 and 2:22 as well, but that is another story!). I woke up like an alarm clock had gone off. Happily, I was able to fall back asleep and by 5:30 I decided just to get up. I thought, “I’m up so I will see if I can take Tiernan and Isabelle to school.” So at 6:30 I sent a text to Sarah and asked her if that would be OK and she said it would.

BEAUTY
I wanted to get some Dunkin Donuts for them so I was out the door by 6:40. It was still night, but there was a full moon shining. It was awesome to step outside and see the driveway illuminated. I was excited. Then, when I came out from under the carport I looked up and saw the moon. I nearly fainted. Unspeakably beautiful!



My heart soared in praise to the Creator and pure delight! I got the donuts and raced back to the house to take a picture. But my camera struggles with shots of the moon. You would think it would have learned by now, as many times as I have tried. (The halo around the moon is due to the camera fogging)

Now I was off to pick up Tiernan and Belle. The Allman Brothers, Brothers and Sisters CD was playing. But more on that later.

PRISON
We were just a tad late getting to school and I knew we would have to go through the office to sign in. I asked Isabelle if she knew how to get to her class room from the office and she didn’t, so I thought I would get to take her and help Tiernan carry his big bag of canned goods (for some drive) to his room. But I really knew they wouldn’t let me.

I signed them in and said Isabelle didn’t know how to get to her room and suggested I could take her. Oh no! They would find someone to do that (and they did, a woman talking on her cell phone, not even paying half a mind to Belle). You see, you are not allowed past the front desk. They know who I am. They know I am with them. But the mere suggestion that I might walk past the front desk sent them scurrying. In fact, when I walked around the corner of the desk, to let Isabelle’s ‘guide’ know that Belle didn’t have her permission slip (to be walking the halls after the bell), the lady behind the desk almost leapt over the counter to hand the slip to Belle’s guide! Tiernan had a large and heavy bag to take to his room. I would not be allowed to help with that either.

I don’t know if you have ever been to a prison, but I had occasion to visit folks in prison when I was pastoring. The inmates enter and may not leave on their own. When you visit them, you have to check in at the desk, get a guest permission slip, and enter when they open the door. That’s the routine for visiting the school. I'm not joking.

MUSIC
By now it was fully day. On the way home I was struck by the beauty of the fall colors. Amazing! My heart soared again! And I turned my CD back on. The song that began to play is called Jessica. I turned it up. Really loud. And rolled down the windows, because that’s what I am used to in the jeep. Man, what a great start to the day! And it’s only 8 in the morning!

Now, I’m going to go eat my donut and watch an episode of Emergency.

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