Snidely and Inhalers

This week I've thought of "distress" and the whole SOS idea a bit.

It started with a friend who had been hospitalized with asthma. We were with her Sunday and her breathing was obviously far from normal. Good for Devastatingly Handsome, who told her to use her inhaler. She tried to tell him, no, it was only for when she was in respiratory distress (which is what the doc told her). DH explained to her that she was, in fact, in distress. She had no idea she needed help. Amazing.

I guess we think of distress looking like this:

But often distress is more common place and hard to recognize. I am asking God to give me eyes to see when someone is in distress, to be able to show them their need, to cut the ropes, and point them to the Rescue. 

~ ~ ~

Psalm 59:16 ~ But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

Kosher Gone Krazy

Sometimes at our local Ollie's store I find a product so mind-bogglingly strange I have to have it.

Who on earth decided matzos!?! could become decadent by being dipped in dark chocolate? What was wrong with just dark chocolate covered chocolate? 

Lessons from the Porta-Potty

I am preparing to spend a month in China with Miss Language. I have never prepared for a big trip, (except, of course, the Ultimate Journey). 

I expected to have to buy a backpack, get a passport and visa, check on immunizations, make many lists, and get some lighter travel-friendly clothes and a new journal. Maybe even pick up a few phrases in Mandarin. But I did not expect a change in the way I feel about using porta-potties. 

One of the things Miss Language has told me to prepare myself for is Asian toilets. These are not raised seats, just a hole over which you strategically squat. Paper is not provided, and when you use the paper you hopefully remembered to bring - you don't flush but put it in a trash can. And there is sometimes a dipper and bucket provided for flushing. Very not me. 

And so, when I entered the porta-potty the other night at Mr Music's baseball game, and was met by The Well Known Odor and saw a lack of tissue, I was surprised to find myself thinking, not "I'm out of here", but "Oh, good, a chance to practice."

Which makes me wonder, of course, about the more spiritual applications of preparing for a Journey and seeing life in that light. As is so often the case, C S Lewis has something to point the way, from God in the Dock: 

If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad.

If I am willing to prepare for squatty potties, how much better to prepare for glory? What Well Known Odors and lacks should I be glad to welcome as needed practice?

~ ~ ~ 

II Corinthians 4:17 ~ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Just One Thing Question

Wondering here if it's easier for me to identify which is my favorite in a category or which is my most hated... 

Hmm. I got to wondering about this when Mr Music ordered a Mountain Dew. I have long felt it is an evil beverage and thought, Mountain Dew is the world's worst drink. But then I remembered Tang, which is ALSO the world's worst drink (I agree with my brother who maintains it is too bad the astronauts did not LEAVE it on the moon). And then, as I was trying to figure out which is REALLY worse, I remembered Vernor's Ginger Ale. Aged three years in oak. Ugh and blugh. Yuck and nasty. 

My quandary is this: when I think about each one, I am sure it is the worst. Maybe they all ARE.  :)

And then I thought about soap. If there were to be only one kind of soap in the world, what should it be? This question at least is more pleasant. First I thought Ivory, it makes things seem so clean (that 99 and 44/100% thing, I guess). And, it floats. How cool is that? Hasn't everyone carved a little Ivory bathtub boat? Then I remembered Camay with its sweet scent and the even sweeter cameo. But then there are also two widely different Yardley soaps I love, the smooth foaming Lavender and the Oatmeal & Almond with little scrubby flecks.

Sigh. Choices, choices. Do YOU have favorite soaps or most hated beverages? And which is more fun, to love and enjoy something simple, or to indulge a harmless hatred?