This morning I got a little time on my hands.
Last night we had a thunderstorm here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Must have been a huge one. It was enough to get me to turn off my computer and go to bed early. The lightening was fierce, and as we learned to do while growing up in my grandmother’s home umpteen years ago, its best to turn off all the lights in the house and get quiet and “let the Lord do His work”.
So I did just that. Went to bed around midnight and woke up a little after 6, which was about right cause my internal clock will give me six hours before it thinks I’ve had enough of a break. No I don’t know who is the mastermind controlling that clock but it sho ain’t me, cause I would at least set it for 8 hours, minimum.
Anyway, this morning I wake up and my mind immediately tells me to look outside. So I did. My intuition had warned me the night before that I needed to move my car from under the tree because the winds were blowing so strong. But the lightening that had accompanied it told me that it was better my car get the damage than me get the electrocution, so I went on to bed. After all one can replace a car, right?
So I look outside in the haze of a film cover over my eyes, and there it is. My red Ford Focus barely visible to the eyes. What was visible was the huge tree limb that had fallen on top of it, with literally thousands of leaves blanketing the whole car. Dag-Gone-It!
Ok so I put on my shorts and I go out to survey the damage. Mind you, the tree limb has not really finished breaking off from the tree totally, so it can still cause damage if it is moved in the wrong way or if I try driving my car out from under it.
I survey the damage and it looks like the only thing broken is the driver side rear view mirror mount. It has broken off completely and now lays on the ground under some leaves with the mirror throwing back at me a reflection of even more leaves. I don’t even bother to pick it up.
“Nothing save that which profited them can ever befall My loved one”--Bahá'u'lláh
So it looks like my morning has been planned out for me by the divine assayer. That’s good. It means I won’t have to think so hard today. Instead of figuring out who is disabled and needs to get a Social Security Disability or SSI check, I can focus on who to call to get the tree limb off my vehicle, and whether I should call the insurance company or not. Do they cover natural disasters, and most of all, what is my deductible? I mean how much could a rear view mirror mount really cost to replace?
The trick is going to be whether the people moving the tree limb can do their part without further damaging my car. At this point I have already awaken an apartment maintenance man out of his sleep at 6:30, and he didn’t sound too happy about that.
Meantime I had also called my job and left a message that I had this little problem to take care of this morning, halfway knowing that they were not going to believe such a story, especially given the fact that this is a Friday morning (in a state government agency) and I had just resigned my position earlier in the week.
“That Loretta really can get creative with her TGIF stories…she has to be admired for that if nothing more” I envisioned my supervisor thinking. Where is the trust, my friend, where is the trust.
Well it is now 7:08 and my alarm clock is thumping, but before I go, here is the lesson I take from this.
Despite the first thought that came to my mind when I looked upon my tree limb covered car, I immediately replaced it with another one. The first thought was that trouble comes in threes.
#1 - out of a job.
#2 - Tree falls on vehicle--only my vehicle, no one else's.
#3 - an unknown something, something lurking in the wings for me, unknown, but sure to come.
But instead of holding on to that ole tale, I immediately replaced it in my mind with the quote above (and below),
“Nothing save that which profited them can ever befall My loved one”--Bahá'u'lláh
Only time will tell whether I was quick enough in replacing the trouble comes in three's negative ingrained thought with my newer and more productive version.
This is Lo and I gotta go…TGIF
