Temporary is NOT VERY LONG...

We were driving through a small town with the windows down on the pickup, a beautiful, warm winter day!  What a curious thing to hear.  I guess it depends on the context and the occupation of the speaker and the hearer.  Was this a sidewalk counselor attempting to soften an emotional blow received by the other?  What was temporary?  And what constitutes NOT VERY LONG?  Was this the CORONA virus,  loss of a job - a layoff, homelessness, even a job you love but know will not last forever (been there, done that!) but I also know people who have FOUND their ideal job when they were assigned as a temp!!

LIFE itself is quite temporary.  None of us knows when our "last day on this earth" will happen with the exception of Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch watchmaker, who was given the hour and minute that she would leave this place.  Nice of GOD I thought when I read that in one of her collected writings or writings about her.  We all marveled at Tom's dads passing on 12/20/2020 at precisely 12:20.  He was a very precise man teaching his children that a job worth doing was worth doing RIGHT.  He was a draftsman, a builder, a farmer, a planner, an inspector, and a Christian.  He believed in doing things RIGHT.  As Tom mentioned at his Memorial Service - no "monkey faces" when he was striking a nail - right on the head every time.  PRACTICE?!   He lived 97 years and I knew him for over 60. We were so blessed that he waited for us to arrive, and that we were in Alamogordo NM, instead of southern Arizona!!  The Care Home in Yuma CO was also blessed that only 4 or their over 25 residents were lost to the VIRUS.  They were super vigilant last year, and while that was frustrating for us,  I can't imagine how unbelievably frustrating it must have been for the residents - no visitors, no outings, and the isolation at meal time!!  We compliment them on their handling of the pandemic / pandimonium!!

 

 My father on the other hand died at 65,  but he taught me the same lessons - do it right and stick to the job until it is done!  So some might say his life was TOO temporary.   Only God knows...  As I told the 85 year old man in tears at Dad's funeral, had Dad not died post heart surgery he might have been hit by a runaway car on the way to pick up the newspaper!   The teary old gentleman had had the same surgery by the same doctor and in the same hospital and there he was feeling somewhat guilty that he had survived and my dad had not.  LIFE is temporary...at least on this planet!

What other things are temporary -  being hungry, getting lost, being lonely, sadness.    Most problems can be handled with time and action on our part.   There are exceptions - chronic pain, aftereffects of the Corona virus, incapacitation due to accidents.  Many auto-immune diseases are not easy to live with and finding the BETTER life style choices is touch and go, what works today may not work tomorrow or next week!!  Getting the right food into our bodies isn't even always possible.  In our travels we have noticed the lack of viable food options in MANY PARTS of our country - fresh produce especially.  Of course when I was a youngster we ate a LOT of canned vegetables during the winter.  I will NEVER purchase a can of VegAll that Mom added pickle relish and mayo to, and sometimes a chopped hard boiled egg, and then tried to tell us it was good for us!! And that orange and apple in our Christmas stocking was A TREAT as it hadn't been in a can or jar for months.  It was reasonably FRESH!!  Nuts were a TREAT, whether unshelled  (I loved the sound and even the smell of cracking the shell and getting the nut out) or purchased by the ounce at the candy counter at the 5 and 10 cent store!!  Peanut butter sandwiches were a mainstay at our house, and did get the protein into our diets!!   Temporary does not always SEEM to be a short time, it does depend on definitions and situations.

I do hope that the Sidewalk Counselor was able to help the person in the TEMPORARY situation to see the "light at the end of the tunnel" and know that it was not the proverbial TRAIN!!

Stay Safe, TRUST in the LORD and SMILE - great exercise for your face!!