The great myth: we are in control of our lives.
I think, especially on whatever number quarantine day we are in today, the recent worldwide events have proven otherwise. We are arrogant in our thinking, naive in our believe system, and just plain stubborn to our core. Yesterday was a prime example…
Because I knew things were beyond control outside of our four walls, I cooked up grandiose plans of how this Easter would look inside our home. We would wake up early, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to greet our children at the bottom of the stairs, so we could meet the morning head on with excitement as we joined together in our “traditional” Easter basket opening celebration. Reality? My husband and I woke up late, as in after 10am late, because we had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, only to be suddenly awakened by the blaring of the truck alarm in our driveway at 4:30am. Thankfully, nothing was broken, nor appeared to be taken, but the event kept our hearts pumping and brains spinning, making the subsequent minutes following flow like molasses on a cold day. Regaining sweet slumber was as hard to find as toilet paper! About 10:30am, once the coffee finally began to do its magic and both kids came outside (past the baskets waiting in full view) to get us, we strolled back into our designated spots on the couch and very anti-climatically “opened” our Easter baskets.
Having taken note of the day’s first “failed” moment, I thought, it’s ok…we can still salvage this! We’ll go on to collectively (and cheerfully) make cookies, which we would never have time for on a “normal” Easter Sunday, dress up, take pictures, set the dinning room table with our china, and eat while video chatting with family. Yeah, I know—grandiose, social media worthy, wishful thinking.
Breakfast was a bit haphazard, because it was so late, but we made a plan for the rest of the day. I got busy preparing the cookie dough so it had time to set up in the fridge. For whatever reason, I decided buffalo chicken wings would be on the lunch menu today. I do them in the air fryer (ie “healthy” right?) and they are incredibly labor intensive. During the in between wing rotations, we roll out the dough and cut out our shapes. Timers are going off every few minutes (was that one for the cookies or wings?), and things were much more chaotic than I’d envisioned. Cookies cooling and wings ready, we decide to eat lunch upstairs while watching Pitch Perfect 2 (because that’s totally what you think of for Easter, right?). We munched with messy buffalo sauce-covered fingers and laughed at the inappropriateness of the movie.
Upon re-entry of the world from “the man cave,” we realized it was 5pm. Cookies still needed decorating and delivering (in social distancing appropriate fashion), dinner required attention (as in starting), clothes changed from our shorts and t-shirts, pictures taken, china placed, and family video meeting organized. We set to work on our designated tasks, charging ahead as “planned.”
About 7pm, when dinner was “supposed” to be served in actual serving dishes, upon our dinning room table so we might enjoy it on our fine china, I had another reality check. I was just now back from our stealth cookie delivery operation. Dinner was at least thirty minutes out. The puzzle and other paraphernalia still commandeered our dining room table. The dishwasher was finally done running for what seemed like the 80 billionth time this month. And, we were still clad in our casual clothes.
I looked at my family and decided this is was not only good enough but beautiful in its disarray. We microwaved slices of ham in the microwave because, despite spending a couple hours in the oven, it was still cold in the center. We served from the stovetop, ate at the dinner table on “fine” disposable plasticware, in our shorts and t-shirts. We laughed as we talked about the movie we’d watched, incorporated song title references into our conversation (a silly game we play), and pushed the green beans to the side of our plates because they flat did not taste right.
After eating our respective dinners, we “Zoomed” with some family, which was an absolutely hilarious spectacle. Cousins in their bedrooms on laptops, some with magical backgrounds, others with screen savers not wanting to be seen. Louder than normal voices, repeating what we’d just said, heard from the room next door (as to limit the feedback) so the people outside of our four walls on the other side of the screen could hear us. Laughter at the odd camera angle of one participant. Unexpected wonderful chaos.
It wasn’t what I’d imagined.
It certainly wasn’t what I’d planned.
But in the middle of the mess, it was an absolutely perfect day. Against all odds, we managed to scrap the superfluous stuff and something beautiful emerged: a non-picture perfect day of events which will forever be captured in my mind. And most importantly, a gentle reminder dispelling the myth that we are in total control of the events within our lives. Truth be told, we never were…and I am one day closer to actually accepting that reality. I pray that whatever your Easter looked like, it was filled with incredible joy that our risen Savior planned for us oh so many years ago.
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