Coffee Break–Vol. 6

A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.

1. My friend, Robin. I mentioned last week (Coffee Break–Vol. 5) about a Bible study I go to each week.  For the past 3 years I’ve been part of the same small group of amazing ladies.  Some have come and gone, but there’s a “core group” that has been together long before I joined. My friend, Robin, was part of that core group and had been battling cancer for many years.  This past week she lost that fight. Actually, if you asked her–she would call it a win.

I instantly liked her the first time I met her– I don’t know of anyone that didn’t.  Good friends are hard to find and I really want to learn to be a better friend. She left me a legacy by example–to be available, kind, encouraging…and likeable.  At the end of my life, I hope my friends are saying all the wonderful things we were remembering about her.

Please pray for her husband, children and grandchildren, and all of those of us blessed to call her friend.  She’s not hurting anymore, but we are. We’re sure missing you sweet friend–can’t wait to catch up when I see you in heaven some day.

2. Worship. I’ve told you about how Super Rockstar sings in a band called SofaKillers.  He also leads worship in various places every now and then–one of those being his workplace, Compassion International.  On those occasions, he will often ask me to sing background vocals and it’s something I always look forward to.  But, I learned an important lesson this time.  Sometimes we don’t always FEEL like praising God–but, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.

When Super Rockstar was asked a month ago, he told me his knee jerk reaction was to say no.  We’ve been suffering a lot of tough stuff lately, and I have to admit that although I very much believe that God is good and I trust Him in everything about my life–I haven’t really felt very thankful.  I guess it’s been the same for him.  But, when he started to write the email to decline, he distinctly felt God speaking to him and reminding him that being thankful and praising isn’t supposed to just be based on when things going are well or when we feel like it.  So, back space, back space, back space…he responded instead that he “would be glad to”.

Sometimes, a simple act of saying yes, when we feel like saying no can be the very thing that transforms us.  Nothing outwardly earthshattering happened Wednesday morning as we belted out songs of thankfulness and praise to the Lord our God, but inwardly, I knew that some huge walls of disappointment, bitterness and anger came shattering down.

3. Spikey things. It’s springtime in the rockies. Which means we get to enjoy all manner of weather–everything from glorious 60 degree temps that make us all feel excited that we can finally put our snowboots away, to single digit lows and a dumping of 8″ of snow making us all despair that we will never get to put our snowboots away.

I have several trails I like to hike and jog on and I posted a few weeks ago (Coffee Break–Vol. 1) about getting to try out my snow shoes for the first time.  But, I’ve encountered some trouble when it’s the “in between” times–not enough snow for snow shoes, but too much ice to just wear running shoes.  The answer?  Voila. The Spikey things.  These babies come in all different types, but the ones I got are rubberized and slip right over any pair of shoes I have.  The result? No more tippy toeing through the precarious patches of solid blocks of ice from the snow melding together into trail iceburgs.  With the spikes on my shoes I’m able to walk and run with confidence and not slam down on my hiney when I hit a hidden slippery patch.

4. Band Chicks. It was another gig weekend for SofaKillers.  I love going to Super Rockstar’s gigs because I always have a great time.  But, one of the big reasons I have a great time is because of my fellow band wives (girlfriend and one of the Moms).  We are the groupies, the band chicks, the crew that has it’s own table (most of the time) and are up front dancing and supporting our men (I really want my own taped off section of the dance floor).  We are also the “sound chicks”(knowing the appropriate hand signals for helping the guys get the levels right), the “bouncer chicks”(this involves keeping the tipsy folks from plowing headfirst into the expensive band equipment and also giving “mean girl” looks to anyone being too flirtatious)  and the “clean up chicks” (when a drink gets dumped on the floor from a “had one too many” dancer). It’s a tough job, but we’re happy to do it.

5. Captain Marvel. We just got home from seeing the newest Avenger movie, Captain Marvel.  Like many of you, I read some of the early, rather disappointing reviews.  I’m not sure what movie they saw, but the one I saw was pretty darn good–we all enjoyed it. Oh sure, it may not be up to par with some of the other movies in the series, but upon reading some of “complaints” beforehand–I honestly wonder if some group was trying to sabotage it’s success.  As with all things, it’s best to judge things from your own experience not based on someone else’s (especially someone you don’t even know) opinion.  I would be curious to know what others that have seen it think.  Let me know in the comments.