Scott City Musings: It's just life

I got up the other morning and Marge had my coffee ready with just a touch of half and half in my cup. She had fried up some sausage patties and made biscuits and gravy, which I just love. She had laid out my favorite pair of bibs, as well as my favorite flannel shirt.

To top it all off, she had driven the side by side right up to our front door. That’s when I woke up! I thought about going back to sleep. But when I awoke, I decided to get up and do “life”, which isn’t all peaches, cherry pie, ice cream and fresh coffee! There are hiccups along the way.

I went out the other morning to help Marge get the mileage on my pickup. However, when I turned the key on, a message said the battery was low. It’s probably time for a new battery. Still, there was a storm in the forecast, and it couldn’t be done.

I got the four-wheeler out and the two right-side tires were low and needed air. I pumped them up or almost got them pumped up, which threw a breaker in the house where the electricity for my shop air compressor comes from. I went to move a big bale and the right-front tire on the tractor was low. After flipping the breaker, we pumped up the tractor tire, which threw the breaker again. There must be something wrong with the air compressor. I was thinking, what will happen next?

But we all have days like this. We wonder why all this keeps falling in our laps at once. What did I do to deserve all this trouble? Some of it may be our fault — silly decisions, wrong choices, poor planning or not paying attention, but most of the blame is Adam and Eve’s.

Way back in the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of good and evil in the middle of the Garden. Adam and Eve listened to the snake, which was tempting them and then, Adam and Eve broke the command of God and ate from the tree of life and death. As a result, sin, death, trouble and problems began right there. When one has a particularly trying time, put the blame where it’s due: Adam and Eve!

Life just happens. Sometimes it’s a joy, but other times it’s no fun whatsoever. Marge talked about getting sick when she was little, and it turned out to be a ruptured appendix. If her parents had waited just a day or two more, she probably wouldn’t have made it. My grandma and her three girls were supposed to come to America on the Titanic, but they missed the boat. One of the girls was my Mom. Dad told of one time getting tangled up in a rope and being dragged by a horse. Just before the horse dragged him into a wire corner, he came loose. He knew he wouldn’t have survived. I helped carry a dear high school friend to his final resting place back in high school. He was way too young for that. At one time, doctors wanted to put Marge on the liver transplant list. I was on oxygen 24/7 for about two years. The doctors knew I wouldn’t get off it, so they pushed for my disability. In short, life happens to all of us, good and bad. Life just happens.

Count your blessings. If you focus entirely on the bad, you’ll be consumed by the bad. What does that old song say about counting your blessings?

“When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done;

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.”

Just me,

Rennie

Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.