Wrong Assumption

When we were in Africa, I was amazed at how the Kenyans could sit. I decided they must be the best sitters on earth.

You'd see them--men, usually, but also women--sitting motionless under a tree, or on a rickety bench at a bus stop, or behind a fruit stand. Not talking, reading, playing checkers, or fidgeting--just contentedly sitting.

Americans, I thought, would go crazy with nothing to read or do or watch or listen to.

Well. Every Monday I take Steven to a church in Eugene for choir practice. I have an hour and a half free while he's singing. Unfortunately it's in the wrong part of town to go grocery shopping, so I take work along instead. Today I graded writing-class papers and figured out my schedule for the week.

I am amazed at how many of the other parents just sit. There are extra chairs in the little sanctuary where the boys sing, and some parents sit there and listen or read, but others sit on the chairs in the foyer and just sit like Kenyans for an hour and a half, not doing anything.

I look at them and think, how can anyone have such an easy, laid-back life? When I'm there, I'm mentally rattling through everything I still need to do that evening, making lists, riffling through paperwork, calling home to see how supper is coming along, taking phone calls to solve the many problems cropping up in my absence (such as when Ben won't obey Emily and go pick up sticks in the orchard like he's supposed to), jotting down article ideas and outlines, grading papers, and if I feel very lazy and indulgent--reading.

What would it be like to have time to just sit and daydream for an hour and a half??

Obviously my assumption was wrong about Americans and their sitting abilities.

Quote of the Day:
"I was just starting to clean up my bedroom cuz I lost something."
--Matt. (Strange what God uses to get Matt to clean his room. Read another example here.)