Week 75: Life on the Go
Eating muffins in the car on the way to the zoo…
Each Sunday, my wife and I cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
We woke up on a Sunday that we already knew would include lots of fun. My brother-in-law’s church was taking a day trip to the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, and Sarah and I were going to tag along. We weren’t sure what time we’d be back though, so we decided on making breakfast for Cooking With Sarah.
Sarah offered up oatmeal as an option, and I think I let out some type of groan. The issue was with me, however. I hadn’t actually heard her right. She found a recipe for oatmeal muffins with lots of good stuff (including chocolate) inside. Once she explained that, well yeah, I was on board for oatmeal.
I went to the store that morning while Sarah got everything ready for our trip to the zoo. When I came back, it was go time!
Ever since I graduated college, I’ve been amazed at how fast life goes. Oh, I thought life was fast in college, too. In fact, I remember people telling me that life only got busier. I remember thinking, “Well, you don’t know how busy I am.” Yet, here I stand at 25 years of age and I can clearly say that life has, indeed, gotten busier.
I feel like I’m constantly on the go.
There’s always something to do.
To borrow a quote from one of my favorite writers, David Mamet, in his play and subsequent movie Glengarry Glen Ross: “Where’s the moment?”
You know what I’ve realized? The moment is there. Right there in front of us. Sometimes we think we will stop and take in the moment once life finally decides to slow down. Well, guess what?
Life isn’t going to slow down.
So, we have to change the question. Instead of asking for life to slow down, maybe we should ask this instead…
…how can I stop and take in little moments even when life is moving at warp speed?
Sarah and I always like to pray before we make our Cooking With Sarah recipe. It gets us refocused on why we do this. It’s about sharing intentional time. Even in the midst of a busy morning, we took time to do this. I’m glad we did.
We put all the ingredients together, and then we put the muffins in the oven. We quickly realized, however, that we hadn’t quite estimated the time correctly. To get to the church in time before everyone left for the zoo, we’d have to take the muffins out early.
We both got ready as the muffins cooked. We decided that, once we were all ready, we’d see how much time the muffins had left and we’d make a decision then. We ended up taking them out about five minutes before they were done so that we could pack up the car and head over to the church.
The one advantage of this was that the muffins were warm and crumbly. The disadvantage was that we had just recently cleaned the car.
I had one muffin while we were driving to the church before Sarah said it was going to be too messy. We’d put them in the fridge when we got there and wait until later to eat them. I complied, although I really wanted another bite!
All that craziness gave way to an absolutely fantastic day at the zoo with family and friends. It was the kind of day that you remember for a long time. Sure, I’ll remember feeding the giraffes and riding the air tram up above the zoo. But I’ll also remember the joy of getting ice cream with my wife and acting like kids again. And the wonder on the faces of my niece and nephew as they watched the animals. Little moments in the midst of a busy day.
And guess what was waiting for me when we got back to the church? Yep, a nice, chocolatey oatmeal muffin. Perfect way to top off a great day!
