A Typical Saturday

It’s so nice to spend a morning with the person you love; cuddling, chatting, laughing and deciding what you two would like to do ( if anything ) for the rest of the day.  My wife and I spent a great Saturday morning together doing just this.  I don’t know what exactly it is, but the touch of the one you love and hold most dear on the planet is like no other.  Holding her close to me brings a certain warmth that is difficult to put into words. 

Although my morning started being woken up at 7:30am by the sound of guys getting ready to put on solar panels on the house across the street, it wasn’t that bothersome… it just meant more time awake with my wife after a long week of running around.  She wasn’t too keen on being disturbed so early, but we were well rested and didn’t mind having the opportunity to hold each other as we tried to slumber along with the chatter and noise outside.  I could have gotten up and closed the window, but why disturb the body when it is relaxed and being kept warm in the arms of your loved one?  It was a chance for us to get an earlier start besides the usual 11am or later starts we have on Saturdays.  We decided on having breakfast ( breaking the night’s fast ) at our favorite Salvadorian restaurant.  The owners and employees there have always been endearing and we haven’t stopped by in quite some time. 

A relative of my wife is challenged with infidelity on the part of their spouse and this was the major topic of conversation as we enjoyed our food.  It is quite difficult to know exactly what to advise ( if anything ) when the love and trust one person has built over the years is shattered by a selfish person.  The casualties of this crisis are always the children.  For me personally ( and spiritually ), divorce is never an option.  The current climate of society is to quickly eliminate a relationship rather than work through the pain to arrive at patience, forgiveness and love covering over a multitude of trespasses.  Too often people are quick to discard what may look to be broken, like one would discard something bought at a store, but love is never purchased.  Love is a decision after the romantic eyes have noticed the other person's humanity.  I began to share with my wife the account of Joel the prophet and what God had that man experience in order to show him the manner in which God has patience with the faithless.  God forgives the faithless when they are ready to repent and get back to being faithful to Him.  Joel was asked by God to marry a prostitute, and his experience thereafter was a mirror image of how the people around Joel were breaking a lifelong relationship with God.  I explained to my wife that although each and every living person has their time of testing when they are totally faithless ( not staying faithful, like a man is to be to a woman and a woman to a man ) with God, that God still loves them despite their faithless and disregard for Him.  I pointed out that it is this very aspect that some who are married are challenged with when infidelity happens to them.  They have the choice to be patient, work through the pain and later be open to forgiving the spouse after they have come to their senses.  It is the projection of love at all times which helps salvage some relationships and the peace and state of mind of the children.

After breakfast, we travel to a local park to get the body in motion and help digest our meal.  We see people setting up their tables for either a birthday party or some kind of celebration.  We see kids doing tricks at the skate park.  We see couples and friends hanging out.  We also see those who seemed to have either slept in the park that night or have walked to the park at daybreak to have the sun’s rays warm their bodies.  As per my good habit, I send a petition from my heart and mind to Him who hears me regarding all the people we see. 

We had watched a movie last night and planned on returning home to watch the sequel.  Prior to returning home, we stop at the grocery store to stock up on water and my wife’s favorite chocolate chip cookie dough.  She usually asks me to bake some of these cookies as a pre-breakfast on Saturday and / or Sunday mornings, so she was sure to grab these as well as we walked the aisles.  She wasn’t much of a chocolate chip cookie fan prior to meeting me, but after hearing about my cravings for them and being open to having some, she’s now hooked!  I am happy to get out of bed for her to bake them and enjoy them.  The chocolate chips are gooey and melted when I serve them right out of the oven. 

Upon arriving back to the house, she makes a phone call to her mom ( who lives out of the country ) and I do the rounds clearing out the several trash bins we have and take them out to the garbage cans outside.  After washing my hands and popping in the movie, we are ready to relax and enjoy the sequel of the comedy we bought a couple weeks ago. 

After the movie, we discuss how it may be good for my wife to visit with her relative who is having that challenge I mentioned earlier.  Although we’d like to spend the entire day together, sometimes the attention others need would best suit our time.  In my selfishness I would never want to part with my wife and she expresses the same sentiment.  But we both know that our hearts speak to us a higher calling and what would be best is to spend some time with someone who may drowning in sorrow and confusion from the emotional storms that life throws at them. 

I have a friend who is going through something similar yet challenged with more personal issues and my wife understood when I needed to see this friend of mine to help him in organizing priorities.  We hope to have dinner with him and his wife soon.  What is amazing is the learning that one receives when helping others.  In one instance, you’d think to be helping someone is a one way street of effort, but that is incorrect.  This is another very difficult phenomenon to put into words, for the helper also is helped in some amazing way.  I haven’t heard back from my friend in almost a week, so I suppose the cigar lounge I recently visited would be a decent stop in the hope of connecting again with the gentlemen I spoke with last time.  I hope to pick up our discussions where we left off.  So, my wife drops me off at that place while she proceeds to her relative’s house.

I see some of the same faces I did a few days ago and I sit down to enjoy the comradery and their company.  Although most of the topics of conversation aren’t as personally interesting to me as they were last time - most likely due to the back to back college football games on the big screen teevee and the fact that most of the guys there played college ball while I only went as far as grade school flag football - I still enjoyed some of the thoughts and stories passed around.  Sometimes being silent and enjoying what others enjoy is a lesson in humility and the reality that not everyone is like yourself, and that's a good thing.  This is also a lesson in selfishness and shows a nearsightedness in always going after what best suites oneself.  Overall, I was able to ask one of the gentlemen when some others had stepped outside what he did for a living overseas after the military pulled out of the war zone.  I was happy to hear him share his experience and I appreciated the insight he brought in his sharing.  I learned that it isn’t always kind or loving to push one’s personal view onto others or challenge others when they haven’t had the exact opportunities to see outside of what they know.  I have had a limited life experience compared to that man who has worked overseas and risking his life as a means to earn a living.  He, in comparison, has had a limited life experience compared to what I've seen, done and learned in my walk of now 38 years on this plain.  Although I have my personal experience to share, I can’t expect nor hold it against another person when they have a view that conflicts with mine, for how I can say I am ‘right’ and they are ‘wrong’ when this life is a journey and every single person is different?  Perhaps if we were in a graduated life journey where we all face the same obstacles at the same age and in the same way can one examine the other person’s performance or growth, but that is not our life... and that has never been any person's life, even in school or an academy of some sort.  No one has the same life experience nor has had the same triumphs or failures as any other person.  Today’s atheist can be tomorrow’s preacher… just like today’s preacher can be tomorrow’s atheist, and all the various points of view in between and beyond these two positions.

After some time I shake everyone’s hand and make my way out the door to walk around downtown a bit.  There’s a beer and wine festival happening a block from that location and everyone seems to be having their night on the town.  If I were with my wife we would have most likely stopped at one of the restaurants nearby to enjoy some food and people watch, but since I am solo I decide to head to the bus stop and grab a bite to eat at another favorite local spot a couple of blocks from where we live.  It is quiet and unassuming.  It’s Saturday night and as I recall from my single life, a lot can happen when single people are doing their thing and I’d rather avoid that particular aspect of the nightlife that some single ( or married ) people are seeking. 

As I’m walking to the bus stop, I am in awe of how many people are out and about within viewing distance.  I remember how I sometimes get a bit overwhelmed when I am flying in a plane overlooking a major metropolis seeing the many lights, streets and buildings below… in awe at the multitudes of people.  I wonder then, as I do this evening, what they are up to and what is going on in their hearts and minds.  I can’t help but pray that God reveals Himself to them in a way which they cannot deny or ignore.  To think how He knows everyone, who they are and what they are up to is mindboggling to me and the thought practically makes me blow a mental fuse. 

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