Already Homesick

Why does the right thing to do have to be so hard?

Sometimes

Sometimes I wonder about people.  I see so many amazing people who are kind and selfless that I wonder.  I wonder what it is that makes them so incredibly good and what traits I could try to aquire to be more like them.  I understand the desire to be so Christlike, but sometimes the actual execution of such intentions is more difficult. 
But then I see so much bad in the world, so much greed, selfishness, back biting and intentional hurt that I wonder.  I wonder why these people do such horrible things, I don't understand it. I understand stumbling, making mistakes, it happens to everyone.  But I do not understand the intentional desire to do so.  To want to intentionally do things that you know will hurt others?  This I pray I never will understand in all honesty, I don't want to go down that road ever.  I suppose its kind of like losing your temper and saying things you don't mean, but again, I suppose many people do that from time to time, but it is different than calmly and deliberately saying or doing something.I still cannot fathom constantly and calmly putting others down and hurting them just for the sake of doing so.  And then walking away, seeming to feel no remorse for the pain such comments and actions cause. No, I do not understand this at all. I think I am grateful that I don't.

Peaceful

Beauty

The Mouse

This little adventure can only be fully appreciated by those who know me well and know just how much I hate mice.  They are dirty, creepy, disease ridden little creatures and I have never thought that they had any place anywhere in my house, ever.  At this point I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my room waiting for my bed frame to arrive.  We also had two fat yellow cats that lived with us: Toby and.. I don't remember the other one's name.   

I was laying in bed, I was still in that comfortable half awake, half asleep state and was avoiding getting up on my one and only day to sleep in.  Somewhere far off I kept hearing a scratching and scuffling noise.  After a little while I began to wonder what the noise was.  Slowly I pulled myself out of my warm blankets enough to look blurrily around the room.  I didn't have to look far.  Just above my head, within arms reach of my head, I saw a little grey mouse chewing on the edge of a cardboard box.  I flew out of bed and down the hallway so fast that my feet barely touched the ground.
I rushed into the laundry room where the two yellow cats lay curled up on top of a pile of towels.  I grabbed Toby off  the pile ignoring his loud meows protesting his rude awakening.
Upon reaching my bedroom I saw no trace of the mouse but I now heard scuffling noises coming from under my desk.  I stood on the only available chair in the room and yanked the desk away from the wall at the same time dropping Toby nearby so that he could chase the mouse.  Toby never caught the mouse, but he did give it good chase and eventually they made their way out of my room-- which was fine by me. Eventually I think it either got out of the house or got caught in one of the numerous traps we had set around the house. 

The Fire

Another story from my past.....

One evening my roommate made little tins of banana bread which had spilt a fair amount in the oven. She had to work very early and we didn’t use the oven very often, so she figured she would clean it up when she got off work the following day.

The next morning I sleepily stumbled into the kitchen thinking that tater tots sounded like a tasty breakfast and turned on the oven to preheat. I then left the room to go down the hall and get ready for work. After a little while (it really wasn’t a very long time at all) I smelled something that seemed not quite right. I walked into the kitchen to find it filled with smoke. Heart pounding, I rushed over the oven and yanked open the door to see orange flames leaping up getting larger and larger. I slammed the door shut and did the first thing that came to mind. I started to yell. Loudly. I wanted my roommates to come help me. Now, I’m not a screamer, even when the giant crow nearly came in the window I didn’t scream; so this really shows how terrified I was. Then I remembered that I was the only one home. Trying to calm down I ran to the fridge and began pulling everything out until I found the baking soda. I must have dumped the entire box on those flames but at least they went out. For a little while all I could do was sit there on the kitchen floor shaking and holding an empty box of baking soda. And that was the first (hopefully the last?) kitchen fire I have ever started. I then proceeded to put away all of the food I had pulled out of the still open refrigerator.

The Crow

So as I was going through some files and cleaning out my flash drive I came across a story I had written a couple of years ago that made me laugh pretty hard.  I don't know if it would make anyone else laugh.... part of the reason it was so funny to me is that I remembered the experiences so vividly.  The first one is about a crow.  I don't like crows, I think they are kind of creepy.

Early one Sunday morning I was leaning against the kitchen counter gazing idly out the window thinking about nothing in particular when a giant crow suddenly slammed into the partially open window. Its talons curled over the inside of the ledge and I could hear its beak tapping on the window as well as the huge black wings flapping against the glass. It seemed to be trying to fit its large form in through the narrow opening of the window! I ran back toward the hallway and in my panic tripped on the edge of the carpet where I could do nothing more than watch this massive dark shape flap and tap and finally fly away leaving nothing to indicate it was ever even there. I sat on the floor a moment in shock then got up and shakily closed the window. My roommates laughed and laughed when I later told them of this experience.  They were amused. It took me a little longer to be as amused as they were.

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