JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME

Last night, Josh and I went to the retirement party of a good friend of
ours, who had just finally retired from the United Postal Service.
Fortunately, it wasn't one of the involuntary firings that are happening
all around the federal government these days, but the end of a long career
as a mail carrier.

He was surrounded by friends, family, and ex-coworkers with food, drink,
dancing, singing-- it was a good time for everyone. I needed this little
bit of a happy time to reset and readjust to the new reality that everyone
around us is experiencing.

Earlier that day, I had been holding a blood drive in Norwood for my
Masonic lodge. It had been a couple of months' worth of planning and up
until a few days before the day of the event and I had been anxiously
watching the number of appointments stay lower than I would've liked. But,
thankfully, with the help of some of my Brethren at the lodge, we had more
donors sign up to donate. We had 100% of donors donate plus a couple of
walk-ins donate as well. It was a, "whew" moment, as I needed a good
result to stay in the good graces of my contact at the Red Cross.

We spend a lot of time watching the clock, hoping for things to have a
positive outcome. We all need to keep a litle faith that, ultimately,
things will work out for the best. It can be anxiety provoking waiting for
the result, but how much of our lives are spent ignoring all else while
waiting for said result to arrive? How much of life have we wasted doing
that?