A Word from God’s Waiting Room

Although it was cool when we left Parkside for a trip to Grafton (IL), the sun was out and it did help us deal with cabin fever many of us had begun to develop.  For such trips, we indicate our desire by putting our names on a ’sign-up’ sheet.  The Activity Director was relieved when a few had to cancel out. More had signed up than the bus capacity.  Yes, the bus was a bit crowded but we had a congenial group with the exception of one, sometimes downright rude, woman.  Yeah,  Dortha (the Peach/Pink lady) went but Virginia was seated between her and me–so no problem there. 

Why Grafton?  The thinking at the time the activity was given birth was that it would be much warmer and sitting on an out-side deck of a restaurant visiting or playing Bingo or just watching boats plying the river would be a nice diversion.  Furthermore, we could experience the joy once more of crossing the river on a ferry (yeah, it takes buses). Oh I have to tell you this restaurant is a part of a very large landing for many boats and it sits above a gift shop and something else.  As you can imagine a bus load of old people–some with walkers, several with canes and the remainder challenged to do many stairs.  Fortunately, the restuarant had a what was reported to be a four-person elevator–but it wasn’t.   Every time four boarded the thing, it would get stuck about half-way up!  Well, we can still think, so we figured that three was the limit.  At three per, it performed quite well (and don’t get the idea that we’re all fat–not the case). The food was good (mostly sandwiches or salads), and was reasonbly priced.  I had a B’BQ sandwich and home-made chips; Virginia chose the cheese cake.  She took a liking to my sandwich and I did the same to her dessert (we’ve been doing that for years), so we shared. 

At about 2 pm we made our way to the bus and made our way home.  As most of you can imagine, when we entered the door of our apartment, both cats seemed to say, “O.K. folks it’s time to take us outside for a walk and some sunning.”  We did. It was a beautiful day for an outing.  Life in God’s Waiting Rooms is great.  God is good–He is good all the time. 

As many of you know, we here at Parkside have a birthday party each month.  Yesterday was the day.  The attendance was down for some unknown reason, in fact only two of about twelve who had birthdays during this month was in attendance.  Birthdays I guess don’t mean as much when you are our age. Several corsages went begging and lots of cake was left over. 

There is usually outside entertainment for our listening pleasure.  But not yesterday.  So, we had to entertain ourselves.  First we were presented with sheets of paper entitled Melody Nonsense.  On it were 25 scrambled song titles.  The object was to identify the song.  Here are a couple of examples:  Minescule colorless prevarications and Span across worried H2O.  I correctly figured 15 of them out and that resulted in a bag of chocolates as a prize! Got them figured out yet?  The answers appear at the bottom of this post.  Next, we played  Music Bingo.  We’d never heard of it.  Sheets of paper with typical bingo spaces, and in each square was the printed title of a song.  Music was then played; if you recognized the song and it was printed in a square on your paper, you put a button on the square.  We got through three games before time ran out; we knew the titles of several but unfortunately those weren’t on our page.   Neither Virginia nor I could claim a prize for this one. 

So much for the fun stuff we do here in God’s Waiting Room.  We just knew you would want to hear all about this birthday party!?!  God is good and we’re doing o.k.  We always enjoy hearing from our ‘lurkers.’ Lurkers are those who read this blog but do not write a comment .

Answers:  Little White Lies and River over Troubled Water

One might wonder why my concern about the subject of waiting.  For Virginia and me, we have a lot of time on our hands and minds.  What shall we do?  Shall we sit and watch TV 24-7, read, involve ourselves in  hobbies, take the cats for a walk, cook, eat, take several naps?  All are possibilities but many fall in the passive waiting category–just waiting around. 

Just waiting around caused a problem.  A woman had stopped her car and waited for the light to change?  Seems as though a guy behind her was laying on his horn.  She, being of good nature, got out of her car and went back to the guy and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with my car, but if you’d like to take a look at it, I’d be glad to stay here with you car and honk while you work.” 

J. Ortberg offers serveral helps for waiting for God.  The first one, Patient Trust, was difficult for this “honko-second” guy.  How in the world does one wait patiently? In my case, I, like many people, realize that too ofen, I want God’s resources but do not want his timing.  Then a light went on.  If I were patient in my waiting, I would be giving God the benefit of the doubt that he knows what he is doing and what is best for me. Oh, but waiting is so hard!  Sometimes, I am tempted to think “I have waited long enough, I’m tired of waiting, I’m going to reach out for whatever I can get out of this life and not worry about the consequences.  But, I don’t. I’m trying to wait patiently.

The next offering of Ortberg is, “Waiting on the Lord requires confident humility.  Wow!  Confidence?  In my self?  No.  Confidence in God?  Yes.  He is able.  The importance of humility?  Well, it is considered the opposite of arrogance and boasting, and a recognition of my limits.  I am not in control; He is.   So then, I must confess that waiting is a good thing for me–I’m not in charge, I’m in the waiting room (with outdated magazines); waiting humbles me.  Waiting on the Lord instead of just waiting around helps me in my progress to spiritual maturity.

Waiting on the Lord requires an Inextinguishable Hope, so says Ortberg.  He reminds us of the promise found in the book of Isaiah:  “Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, BUT THOSE WHO WAIT FOR THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.”  I’m not about to believe that my physical strength will be renewed through my waiting (yes, I know all things are possible with God), but my spiritual strength can. At my age, I don’t expect to soar like the eagles riding the thermals, nor glide great distances, but I can flap my wings as I walk while clinging to God.  God, we’re betting on you, we don’t have a Plan B. We’re going to do the best we can right where we are, not knowing what tomorrow holds.  We’re doing our best to wait on you, God.

A question I received recently was in regard to the title of my blog.  Truth is, it was a phrase used by a fellow resident here at Parkside; I borrowed it.  The conversation included thoughts regarding waiting until her health status would require her to make a move from Independent Living to Assisted Living, Health Care or to her heavenly home to be with God.  Waiting until something happened.  Most of us do that, most us don’t like to wait.

 Virginia is much better at waiting than I am, but then she is much better than me in lots of ways. (Love that woman!).  So, I admit I’m not good at waiting–I need something to happen, something to do.  Perhaps, that’s the reason I like microwave ovens, the internet, Fed-X and Express Lanes at Wal-Mart.  In fact, I like to move in ‘honko-seconds.’ Robert Levine (Geography of Time) defined this term as the time between when the light changes and the person behinds you begins to honk his horn. 

John Ortberg, one my favorite authors, wrote a small book entitled, “Learning to Wait,” so I ordered it to see if there was help for guy in a Waiting Room spending a lot of time just waiting.  Ortberg defines waiting from a Bibical perspective–a different way to think about waiting.  He reminds his readers that God told his people to wait (43 times in the Old Testament).  He then cites several examples; some helpful, some interesting but some questionable for us.  Neither Virginia nor I have any expectations of waiting some 400 years as the Israelites did to cross the Red Sea to freedom, nor the 40 years for them to enter the promise land.  Yes, we expect to wait a few more years but the question Ortbert poses is, “Are we waiting on the Lord or just waiting around?”  Waiting for something to happen–the housekeeper to come, the USPS letter carrier, the Parkside bus to arrive, the Maintenance Guy to show up to make a repair.  Because all those things are done for us, we have a lot of time to wait.  How shall we wait?  Ortberg offers some help but we are at the end of Part One.  The sequel is in process in which I’ll delve into this matter further.  God is good.  We’re good.  Love to you and yours. 

Before you ask if he’s lost his mind, let me attempt an explanation.  Neither Virginia nor I had ever heard of Cocked Hat Bowling until we saw the announcement in our Parkside newsletter of a trip to the Corner Bar here in Saint Charles.  Today we went on the trip.  Now, don’t jump to an erroneous conclusion.  Yes, it really does exist, and yes, it is located in the Corner Bar.

The Corner Bar (and it is indeed a bar) and the building is located on a street corner.  The building was built in 1865 and reportedly housed Civil War prisoners at one time.  But back to Cocked Hat bowling.  Apparently, this sport was quite prevalent in this country until Prohibition.  Virtually all of them have closed, including three in the St Louis area, except this one in Saint Charles.  You might be asking, how did the sport get its name at this point.  Read on.

The “bowling alley” is located on the (first floor) which makes you think you are are in a dungeon.  According to the young owner, there were arches constructed with doors which was probably used as horse stalls.  Well, today, there are no horses, the ‘dungeon’ has seating for about 20 people and two bowling lanes.  Each lane has only three pins and the bowling balls are about the size of a croquet ball but heavier and without finger holes.  The pin sitter has a narrow cage-like protector.  During the earlier years, only men were allowed to bowl and some of the teams today are comprised only of men.  There is one women’s league.  The Cocked Hat part?  Well, you see the ceilings were low, men frequently wore their big hats (some top hats, we were told), so when it was time for one to throw the ball, he had to cock his hat–otherwise he might knock it off his head.  Did we try bowling?  You bet, we did.  A bowler gets to throw three balls during his/her turn.  I must have thrown nine and the best I could do was to knock down two pins.  I don’t want to brag but Virginia only knocked down one, but then she only threw three balls.  O.K., she did better percentage wise than me, but who’s counting.  It was all for fun. 

We had lunch while there, and would you believe our hamburgers cost only $2 each–every big as good as those from the Golden Arches, maybe better. The proprietor gave to each of our group a free glass of coke.

As you can see, we here in God’s Waiting Room, take trips, go to bars, bowl, have fun and come home and take naps.  God is good.  We’re doing o.k.  Don’t forget to comment.  Love to all. 

It was also a colorful day.  The trip to the Hand Blown Glass Factory was most colorful.  The Redbud, both pink and white Dogwood and Red Plum trees were in prime beauty; they seemed to line the streets from God’s Waiting Room to the factory.  Adding their colors were irises, lilacs and many others we didn’t know.  The bus was completely filled and many comments were heard about the scenic beauty at this time of the year.

At the factory, seven or eight artists were busy forming glass into objects such as vases, bowls, paper weights, and indescribeable figures.  Our host wore a microphone that worked; he described the organization and then ran a commentary as an artist formed a colorful bowl.  There was one furnace that had liquid glass–beginning point for each product.  Four other  furnaces were used to reheat an object being formed.  For our demonstration, the artist must have made seven or eight trips to a furnace to reheat the glass he was working with.  We were shown how color was added and the efforts made to shape the glass.  Finally, it was placed in cooling oven for a slow cool down.  The factory staff conducts demonstrations, shows and sales events.  Some of our group made some purchases.  We might have made one, had we found a nice glass cat, but no such luck.  Quite a selection of glass art ware was on display and available for purchase; some of it started at $20, some as much as $250.   Our trip reminded Virginia and me of our tour through the Corning Glass Works in New York in 1987.  This one, however, was much more up close and personal.  We enjoyed it.

As usual when taking a trip, we have an opportunity to try a new restaurant. This time it was Raconelli’s New York Pizzeria.  I had the All American (ham and cheese hogie), Virginia ordered the cheese calzone.  The food was very good; the service reasonably good; the ambiance was non-descript.   Fortunately, no orders were mixed up; no one got lost, the ride home was uneventful. 

Here in God’s Waiting Room, we’re doing o.k.  We’re still waiting to hear from some of you.  God is good.  We love you. 

Audrey is unlike anyone you’ve ever met.  She seems nice enough, but.  She may remind you of someone you know.  She has been here in God’s Waiting Room for several years.  She worked in a factory all her life, so she says.  She was hospitalized recently (for what reason, we have no idea) and is attempting to regain strength by walking. 

The other day while walking the cats, Audrey came out to tell us among other things that she has looked in every box she could think of and still was unable to find her birth certificate.  Seems as though she needs to present it to her union in order to activate her pension.  We listened and was able to get in a few ‘uh huhs’ and an occasional ‘really’ in.  She went on and on in her whiny, high pitched voice–one that tends to grate on one’s (our)nerves.  We heard about the lost birth certificate three times in the span of about 15 minutes or less.  Finally, we were able to separate ourselves and take the cats inside.

Audrey likes to walk–either inside or outside the buildings.  While tending to the laundry last Monday, minding our own business by reading the morning paper, here comes Audrey.  She stood in the door of the small laundry room–no escaping.  A Crock Pot was on her mind.  She had bought something (maybe a roast or a chicken) to put in the pot.  Her brother told her that her pot was too small, but she tried it anyway.  Finally, she decided to cut into, put part in the pot and part in her freezer which was already full and she’d probably have to throw something out.  Then the missing birth certificate came up again.  I suggested that perhaps she had put it in a book to which she said she’d never do something like that!  I wondered.

Today, while waiting on the bus for an outing, here comes Audrey talking before she was in our presence.  Seems as though she had talked to her doctor and he told her to drink.  Of course, she wanted to know what to drink and he supposedly ask what she had available.  Well, she had two bottles in her frig.  When asked if it was hard stuff, she told him, no, it wasn’t frozen.  After more description of their conversation, it came out that she had a bottle of cranberry juice and some apple juice.  The doctor recommended that it would be good for her and she should drink up.  We’re hoping it helps her.  Incidentally, we take the cats out a different exit now. The seats in the bus accommodates only two people; Audrey sat with another person.  Whew!