Blather

I was planning to share yesterday - but we all know what happened to Blogger yesterday.  (If you don't know, blogger was "down".  Down is a euphemism for deader than a doornail!)  If it was working for other people that's very nice, it was on life-support at best for me.

So anyway, I'm glad it's back, welcome back Blogger.  I hope you find my post from the other day.  It was a lovely quote by Gilda Radner.  Perhaps Blogger will find it and share it again, perhaps they won't.  Certainly not in my power to control and no point worrying about it.  But it was a lovely quote. :)

I just saw another quote which I just have to share:

The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.  -Zig Ziglar

That hit me right in the weight area.  I'm struggling.  Lordy, it's seems I've been struggling always with it.  I guess it's because I trade what I want most for what I want now.  Right now I want the chocolate.  Have not grown up enough to make myself realize that I can't have all the chocolate and maintain a healthy weight.  Self-control is lacking here. grrrr (hate admitting weaknesses).

So about yesterday.  You're probably just dying to know what it was I was planning to share with you. ;)

 Yesterday, I learned that my friend Kate was right when she told me that the universe provides.  You see, at the beginning of March I received a speeding ticket.  It's the 4th one I've had in the past 30 years.  The other 3 were well-earned.  By that I mean that I was speeding, and deserved the tickets.  In each case I really wasn't paying attention to my driving, twice I was actually just driving along admiring the scenery. (Once was Fall leaves in blazing, glorious colors, the other time was Winter tree limbs etched with snow and ice.  Both just beautiful.)  Anyway, this time, I was being careful.  You see, awhile back, Master gave me a wonderful car to drive.  It's small, rather unique in that they didn't make many of them, and fast.  Really fast.  Built with more than just a fast engine, it has all the other things that make race cars fast like suspension and brakes and other technical things.  As He explained to me once, if a car is going to go super fast it has to be able to stop super fast too.  I'm sure that's a supreme over-simplification of the engineering that goes into these kinds of cars, but it's really as much as I need to know.

Ok,  so anyway, to make a long story short (too late!) since I got this car, I've learned that the police really do use profiling, and really will pull over a car like mine just for jollies.  It looks fast therefore it must be fast.  Funny thing, they walk up to me, I put the window down, they're towering over my tiny little car, and as they bend to look into the window and talk to me, they realize they're not talking to a young man out joy-riding, but a fat, middle-aged woman on her way home from work.  And they caution me about not going too fast, or some other such nonsense which they have no evidence of (no radar, no nothing) and then they give me a warning and send me on my way.  So, I've learned to be very careful in this car, I'm tired of being detained for no reason.  On the day in question, I was traveling a road near home, well known to all in the community as a road they frequently patrol - it's residential.  I was carefully making sure I did not exceed 5-7 miles over the limit.  And the officer pulled me over anyway, and claimed I was traveling 16 miles over the limit.  16!  I was shocked.  I had no idea (God, I'm so naive) that an officer would lie about what his radar-gun thingy said.

Well, I knew enough to shut up and just say yes officer blah blah blah.  But I was still livid.  I remained livid.  Actually I am still pretty frustrated at the injustice of it all, but then again I'm the first to admit that Fair is just a place where pigs go to win blue ribbons.  And obviously, since I'm not prone to receiving speeding tickets, I chose to go to trial.  Yesterday was the day of the trial, and I left work early and drove myself to traffic court.  2.5 hours later I was free to go - all charges against me dropped.   Of course it wasn't really vindication or anything, but the result is the same.  I was found not guilty because the officer who wrote the citation did not show up.  I didn't even have to pay court costs.  And that is why I know that the universe does provide.  In our legal system, there is nothing I could have said or done to change the situation.  There's no arguing with the cop, no explaining to the judge, no nothing.  It's one of those times when the fact is we're believed to be guilty and there is no way to prove innocence.  So I thought the best I could hope for was a Probation Before Judgement, which would mean I wouldn't get the point on my license.  But instead, I got better.  And I'm glad.  Well ok, so everyone would be glad, that was a silly thing to say, but it was a deeper sense of justice having been served, and some of my belief in the overall goodness of the universe was restored.  (Yes, I'm that simple, lol.)

When I arrived at home after court, I took some photos of the azalea and rhododendron outside.  On Mother's Day W/we worked in the yard, hacking away at the vines and weeds and dead stuff which were over-taking the yard.  I assumed these bushes were done for the year - they had buds which turned brown without ever opening and I hoped only that they would come back to life next year.  But the very next day they were both in bloom.  Gorgeous bloom!  See for yourself:

It was gratifying to see such good result from O/our efforts, W/we worked very hard but it was worth it.  And I'm pretty sure there's a parable or lesson to be learned here too.  Perhaps one that will tie in with the speeding ticket/vindication and the quote above too.  I bet if I looked hard enough I could find how all these events speak to me of second chances and renewal.  That just because I took the easy way out in the past doesn't mean I will always take the easy way out, it's never too late to start new.  The universe is just waiting to help me.

Lessons taught and left unlearned until the right time, and then all the lessons converge at once to reinforce the message.  Small steps can have big outcomes, it's never too late, and second chances do exist.

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