Day 218 -- Divine Directions
I was getting to the point of being stressed-out-beyond-what's-reasonable-or-logical.
I was sitting at a traffic light somewhere in Battle Creek. The heck if I knew where, exactly.
I had just dropped my bike off for a tune-up and some hardware installation at Team Active in downtown Battle Creek. I had intended to also get some advice on nutrition while riding the bike (how do you eat when you are on a bike for 3-7 hours, anyway? If you know me at all, you know that this is an important question), learn some lessons about basic bike maintenance, try on some triathlon suits, and check out some gear bags for storage (after all, you can only cram so many of those gels down your sports bra before it starts to look funny). Then, I was taking Dharia to her second class at Branch Gymnastics.
About one minute into my "Fix a Flat Tire" lesson, my daughter tugged on my shorts, informing me that she needed to go to the bathroom. Lovely. The bathrooms are up two flights of stairs at Team Active, so we ran as fast as we could up the stairs, through the bike showroom, and to the bathroom. We returned to the oh-so-patient bike technician, and the lesson commenced. At the end of the lesson, I went over to the racks of triathlon suits and began browsing (quickly, because according to my calculations, we had about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for gymnastics). As I led Dharia to another area of the store to look, she announced loudly, "Mommy, I gotta POOP!"
Beautiful.
Up the stairs we bounded again and past the rows of bikes. But, this time, she noticed the rows of shiny, pink, gorgeous little girls bikes that she had missed the last time through. She patted each one of them with one hand while prancing in place and holding her rear with the other. I urged her into the bathroom where she successfully completed her business. Then, after washing hands, we came downstairs once again.
4 minutes to go.
I grabbed a couple of things to try on and whisked my daughter into the fitting room with me. As I changed into the first outfit, Dharia exclaimed in her best stage voice, "Mommy, you are NAKED!"
Cringe.
Everything fit, so I quickly changed back into my street clothes, but not before I heard "Mommy, you are NAKED AGAIN!" come out of my once-sweet daughter.
Burning red, I tried to hide my face as I brought a pair of shorts and a tank top to the counter to pay. I grabbed my bag of loot, strapped Dharia into the car (not on top, though the idea had occurred to me), and peeled out of the parking lot before realizing I had absolutely no idea how to get to Branch Gymnastics from this location. I had only been to the gym once before, on Monday, and it was from home.
I took a stab in the dark and turned left. I figured I knew the general direction to follow and that would be good enough until I could find a main road.
It was a pretty good plan until the road I was on seemed to be seriously blocked -- cones and vehicles with flashing lights loomed on the horizon. I turned onto a side street, hoping to just zip around it all and reappear on the other side, when I came up behind about 20 other cars trying to do the same thing.
By now, things were starting to snowball out of control in my brain. I managed to accomplish 2 of the dozen or so items on my list at Team Active. I had just spent more than I meant to on a triathlon suit, mostly because I was rushed and didn't really have time to think about my decision. I had no idea where I was going. Dharia was going to be late to gymnastics. I was hungry. My house was a mess.
Yes, I realize that these last two seem irrelevant to the story, but they were in my brain and they were contributing to my stress at the time.
I washed the minutes tick by and tried not to flip out completely as we crept slowly forward.
When I finally got to the front of the line, it was 6:00 and Dharia's class had now started as she sat in the back seat. Even though I had made it to the front, I still had no clue where to go. Wild-eyed, I floored it straight through, only to get stuck at what seemed like the world's longest red light. This is where you entered the story, above.
I was gesturing frantically and making loud growling noises at no one in particular when my daughter said to me in a small voice, "Mommy, just be happy again, okay?"
I realized that my attitude was less than stellar.
I took a deep breath and drove through the intersection at a reasonable speed when the light turned green.
I pulled over to the side of the road and prayed out loud, "Lord, please help me to find Branch so that Dharia can get to her gymnastics class. I have no idea where I am going and I don't want her to miss because of me."
45 seconds later we crested a hill and I saw the sign for Branch.
I have no idea how that happened. I do know that God was looking out for us tonight, even with my crappy attitude, and that we made it to gymnastics only minutes late by His grace alone. It was divine direction, in its most literal form.
I would still like a GPS, though.
Thank God for divine directions!
Lord, thank you for helping me and blessing me even when I don't deserve it. Thank you for helping me to find Branch tonight. Please forgive me for my awful attitude. I am so grateful to know that you watch out for me in all things big and small. In your name I pray, Amen.
I was sitting at a traffic light somewhere in Battle Creek. The heck if I knew where, exactly.
I had just dropped my bike off for a tune-up and some hardware installation at Team Active in downtown Battle Creek. I had intended to also get some advice on nutrition while riding the bike (how do you eat when you are on a bike for 3-7 hours, anyway? If you know me at all, you know that this is an important question), learn some lessons about basic bike maintenance, try on some triathlon suits, and check out some gear bags for storage (after all, you can only cram so many of those gels down your sports bra before it starts to look funny). Then, I was taking Dharia to her second class at Branch Gymnastics.
About one minute into my "Fix a Flat Tire" lesson, my daughter tugged on my shorts, informing me that she needed to go to the bathroom. Lovely. The bathrooms are up two flights of stairs at Team Active, so we ran as fast as we could up the stairs, through the bike showroom, and to the bathroom. We returned to the oh-so-patient bike technician, and the lesson commenced. At the end of the lesson, I went over to the racks of triathlon suits and began browsing (quickly, because according to my calculations, we had about 10 minutes before we needed to leave for gymnastics). As I led Dharia to another area of the store to look, she announced loudly, "Mommy, I gotta POOP!"
Beautiful.
Up the stairs we bounded again and past the rows of bikes. But, this time, she noticed the rows of shiny, pink, gorgeous little girls bikes that she had missed the last time through. She patted each one of them with one hand while prancing in place and holding her rear with the other. I urged her into the bathroom where she successfully completed her business. Then, after washing hands, we came downstairs once again.
4 minutes to go.
I grabbed a couple of things to try on and whisked my daughter into the fitting room with me. As I changed into the first outfit, Dharia exclaimed in her best stage voice, "Mommy, you are NAKED!"
Cringe.
Everything fit, so I quickly changed back into my street clothes, but not before I heard "Mommy, you are NAKED AGAIN!" come out of my once-sweet daughter.
Burning red, I tried to hide my face as I brought a pair of shorts and a tank top to the counter to pay. I grabbed my bag of loot, strapped Dharia into the car (not on top, though the idea had occurred to me), and peeled out of the parking lot before realizing I had absolutely no idea how to get to Branch Gymnastics from this location. I had only been to the gym once before, on Monday, and it was from home.
I took a stab in the dark and turned left. I figured I knew the general direction to follow and that would be good enough until I could find a main road.
It was a pretty good plan until the road I was on seemed to be seriously blocked -- cones and vehicles with flashing lights loomed on the horizon. I turned onto a side street, hoping to just zip around it all and reappear on the other side, when I came up behind about 20 other cars trying to do the same thing.
By now, things were starting to snowball out of control in my brain. I managed to accomplish 2 of the dozen or so items on my list at Team Active. I had just spent more than I meant to on a triathlon suit, mostly because I was rushed and didn't really have time to think about my decision. I had no idea where I was going. Dharia was going to be late to gymnastics. I was hungry. My house was a mess.
Yes, I realize that these last two seem irrelevant to the story, but they were in my brain and they were contributing to my stress at the time.
I washed the minutes tick by and tried not to flip out completely as we crept slowly forward.
When I finally got to the front of the line, it was 6:00 and Dharia's class had now started as she sat in the back seat. Even though I had made it to the front, I still had no clue where to go. Wild-eyed, I floored it straight through, only to get stuck at what seemed like the world's longest red light. This is where you entered the story, above.
I was gesturing frantically and making loud growling noises at no one in particular when my daughter said to me in a small voice, "Mommy, just be happy again, okay?"
I realized that my attitude was less than stellar.
I took a deep breath and drove through the intersection at a reasonable speed when the light turned green.
I pulled over to the side of the road and prayed out loud, "Lord, please help me to find Branch so that Dharia can get to her gymnastics class. I have no idea where I am going and I don't want her to miss because of me."
45 seconds later we crested a hill and I saw the sign for Branch.
I have no idea how that happened. I do know that God was looking out for us tonight, even with my crappy attitude, and that we made it to gymnastics only minutes late by His grace alone. It was divine direction, in its most literal form.
I would still like a GPS, though.
Thank God for divine directions!
Lord, thank you for helping me and blessing me even when I don't deserve it. Thank you for helping me to find Branch tonight. Please forgive me for my awful attitude. I am so grateful to know that you watch out for me in all things big and small. In your name I pray, Amen.
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