Slow Down....

I suppose it is a bit ironic that my last post was about Red Lights and Green Lights, and today's post is about "slowing down", but there must be some lesson I am supposed to be getting that maybe I am not.  I have always said that my favorite verse is "Be still, and know that I am God".  I know for certain that God is my everything....of that, I have no doubt.  It's that whole "being still" piece with which I have always struggled a bit.  I try to do too much; I try to pile too much into one day or one vacation or one PD session I am teaching or one trip from the car. Doing too much is just one of my character defects, but I do think that God laughs at me, sometimes.  Instead of allowing me to go on and on with my doing too much, He finds a way to slow me down.  
We are in the midst of building our dream home, which is really great fun and also a bit nerve-racking, as we hurry up to pick out appliances only to find that our garage doors are on back order.  We hurry up to find the right counter surfaces only to find out that the windows we chose are on a 14 week delay.  Am I grateful we even have the opportunity to build this amazing home?  Of course.  And yet...we simply have to slow down, sometimes.
We made plans to take Dave's sister, Linda, to Hawaii since she had never been.  We have all been looking forward to the trip. We left Texas to fly to Phoenix for one night, where I did some professional development for Grand Canyon University, before we would leave the next morning for Kaua'i.  As we were deplaning in Phoenix, my right foot was planted in the aisle of the airplane and I turned back to grab my carry on bag from the seat.  I turned my right knee and heard and felt a pretty loud "pop".  Flashbacks from 2002 when I tore my ACL in my left knee and felt that same popping sound just in a different spot on a different knee.  We waited to see what would happen (plus, I had to rush to go conduct my training from our hotel room all that afternoon), and every time I turned wrong, my right knee felt like it was going to buckle underneath me.  On Kaua'i, we went to an Urgent Care to have it checked out.  The diagnosis?  I strained (not tore, for now, thank goodness!) my lateral colateral ligament in my right knee.  Running is not in my future for a few weeks, and I am instead wearing a brace in order to feel some stability.  Slooooooowwwwww down, Shelly. Well, now, I don't have a choice. I am planning to spend the next several days in Hawaii, reading and hanging out on our patio, by the pool, and on the beach.  Yes, we're doing some sightseeing; yes, I am doing some walking; yes, I will enjoy the scenery, but the main goal is simply to slow down and heal.  Maybe someday, I can learn some lessons the easier, softer way instead of being pummeled over the head with them.  In the meantime....in the words of my dear friend, Cid Smith, "life sucketh not".  
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