SPONTANEITY

My husband used to say to me, that I was not very flexible. Now what does that mean? In his mind, I was not willing to change my mindset and come alongside him with something that was his idea. Now, he may have been correct. But maybe not.

I had been to India on several ministry trips. One time our host said to me, "Chris, of all the people who come to India, you are the most flexible.” He also said, “You have changed a lot.” You think? In India, I was not in control. I had to be willing to go with the flow and change my mindset often.

Spontaneity and flexibility are not the same thing. I was going to say impulsivity and spontaneity are not the same thing. I am an impulsive person sometimes. It comes with being a bit ADHD. But spontaneity is something else altogether. Its not me being impulsive. It is me being flexible. Its me coming alongside my husband when he comes in from evening chores around 7 pm on a Friday night in July and saying, “Pack an overnight bag. We are going away for the weekend.”

Okay. This happened once before on our anniversary years ago. Someone anonymously sent us a cash gift with a card simply saying, “God loves you.” The combine had made one round of the oat field when the rain came. No more field work was going to get done that day. We visited a friend. Had a fancy dinner out and checked into a local motel to try out a waterbed before investing in one. We returned at noon the next day just as the combine started the second round of the oat fields. And, yes. We did buy a water bed the following year.

Taking a weekend away from the farm has not been easy over the years. Cows have to be fed and milked twice each day no matter what the weather or what day or time of the year it is. There always had to be someone reliable available to step in.

So that memorable weekend in July we headed to Hershey PA to visit the chocolate factory. It was midnight when we got to Watkins Glen and there were no rooms available. So, he says, “I have an idea.” We slept in the car behind a little old church across the road from a gas station where we were able to freshen up at 6 in the morning. Not the first time we slept in the car on a road trip. 

Memories on a facebook post from 10 years ago:

I was sitting in the dentist office this morning waiting to get my teeth cleaned and the receptionist says I have a phone call. I hung up the phone and said, "I got a date."

So, after a while the girl cleaning my teeth says, "So where did you meet this guy?"

I replied, "I married him 42 years ago".

We went to the market in St Jacob's.

Spontaneity is dropping everything and going on an adventure together. This is so much easier now that we are both retired and do not have cows to milk anymore.