Happy Quite

During the holidays I often feel like a hamster in a cage, running furiously on an exercise wheel. I might go faster and faster, but regardless of my speed, I don’t get very far.

We recently had events at Crowder and events at First Christian. Sandwiched in between the two, Big Al and I reluctantly thought we would squeeze in a little Christmas shopping. You may know; I’m a horrible shopper. I hate the pressure of picking out a gift for other people and I’ve learned from experience and the reactions of friends and family that I’m a little “off” in the gift giving department.

We made it through one store, when I had hit my limit. The crowds and lines were more than I could take, so we ended up going out to dinner and had a delightful time 'discussing' shopping.

I enjoy the side conversations at church. Those little bits of hurried conversation shared between pews. A laugh, a sign, a nod or a quick hug often conveys more than a long conversation.

This Sunday leaving the morning service, our friend Ben Moore remarked about the busy afternoon and evening in store for many of us and asked if I remembered the poem about the centipede. I did not. So he quickly wrote it down from memory for me:

A centipede was happy quite,
Until a frog in fun,
Asked ‘pray tell which leg comes after which?’
This raised her mind to such a pitch,
She lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering how to run.

It’s easy to be “happy quite” during the holidays until some jumpy old frog gets our brains working at a fever pitch. My brain-jam always comes back around to the last minute presents. So we’ve had to make a family agreement: Big Al will shop. I will cook. This always sounds more than fair to me.

On the topic of shopping, we heard the CEO of Toys R Us on a financial news channel last week. He was talking about the stores plans to stay open the week before Christmas around-the-clock.  There were to be nine days of 24-hour shopping at Toys R Us.

What really caught our attention though was his description of a new video game. In describing its functionality and touting all the bells and whistles, he referred to it as “platform agnostic” meaning it recognized the various game platforms (Nintendo, Wii, PlayStation), it simply didn’t care. The game would work on any of them.

I wish I could share what the game was, but unfortunately I was too intrigued by the description to remember the product.

Hope everyone is “happy quite” this New Year.