AUTHOR’S GAB, READER TALK.
A LETTER TO YOU, THE READER, SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT I’M THINKING.
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THIS MONTH: Righteous Rest
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“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
-Alexander Graham Bell
Dear Reader,
Last fall, when I drove home from working at Lakeland High School, I would always take Ford Rd. I took it because, in comparison to the paved way home, this dirt road was a more direct route home; and, thus, it was also a quicker way to go.
All the way home I would think about how my dad had said not to come this way because it would ruin the suspension on my car. And, as I rolled along, clunking down and up into potholes and knicking my car with stray pebbles, I began to think he was right.
Except for weekends, I always get out of work late in the evening; so, it was always dark when I came home from LHS on those nights.
Each house I passed would be dark and sleepy. There would be a porch light on here, a few cars parked there. But, mostly, the only activity I witnessed would come from the rumble of my tires, the tune blaring softly out of my car stereo, the crickets chirping sleepily in the dark forest, and the moon (if there was one out that night) and stars, peering brightly down on it all.
That is, except for one house.
Ford Rd. takes many twists and turns on my way home, and even runs into Cooley Lake Rd. at one point before it continues on its way.
At that intersection, through the dark, despite my tired, anxious thoughts from work that night, there is a bright window. In that window, something which I can only spy for a moment before I continue on my way, there is a lamp, shining merrily and constantly. And, beside that lamp, on a simple, pink-gray couch, there is a woman.
What she is doing, I cannot say. I have often thought, based on her posture, she might be planning something, skimming over her calendar. She could be watching t.v. or she might be praying. But, more likely, after a long day of work, she is just, quite simply, resting.
Night after night I would pass by, and she would always be there, through the window. I got to counting how many times I saw her there, and it served as a form of amusement for me, to lighten my troubles for a moment before I moved on with my life.
Yesterday, I was coming home from work at Milford High School (which, if I take M-59, I still pass by that way); and, she was there, the window all alight with Christmas lights. There was even a small evergreen tree decorated in the middle of it for the holidays.
It was there that I got to thinking about my own experiences this December, and how, perhaps, this lady in the window and I aren’t so different at all.
This month began with my last week of classes, and one week of final exams.
Through that time, I continued to work and study hard. And, when I was done with it all, I declared my major in Journalism, with a minor in Chinese Language Studies, and went on break… at last!
But, for the first week of break, I didn’t have a chance to relax. Instead, I lifeguarded every day until December 20th, my first official day off.
Even after that, there was Christmas and several social events to take care of. It was fun and satisfying, but it was also exhausting.
In reality, I felt stretched to the limit… like a bit of rolled out pizza dough. All I wanted was to crawl up in a hole alone and tell everybody to go away.
But, life doesn’t work like that. Even on breaks, when rest is deserved, there are “restful” things to do, stuff to plan for, and people to see.
Life doesn’t stop just because school does.
I bet the lady in the window deserves a rest too. But, I also bet she isn’t stopping for anything.
She probably keeps going. After all, she most likely has to go to work the next day, and is taking this one moment to rest before bed.
There’s an old saying which says, “There’s no rest for the wicked, and the righteous don’t need any.”
Well, let’s be honest: people DO need to rest. How they do it is the issue here.
To rest the wrong way, lock yourself up in your room and ignore the rest of the world. The time/space continuum doesn’t exist. Only you exist. Come out when you’re ready to.
I suppose this means this lady and I are resting the right way.
We aren’t ignoring our responsibilities or what’s going on in the world around us. We are looking through our windows at life and not at the closed doors behind us. We are resting when we can, and that’s about it.
I think, that is “righteous rest”: well deserved, but not idiotically taken. I think that sums up my thoughts in this December quite well.
Ok! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
It’s been a pleasure writing for you this 2011. I look forward to the writing to come in 2012!!! 😀
Thanks again for reading!!! Take care!!!
Sincerely, Your Writer,
Jessica Anne McLean
Recent Happenings:
- December’s Ad-Lib is here!
- I started a new blog, Grains of Sand, strictly for the publication of my Journalistic pieces.
- My article, “Traffic Accidents On Campus Decrease, Become More Serious” appeared online in the Campus section of the Oakland Post on December 23, 3012! Check out the link featured on Grains of Sand (thisbreathforward89.wordpress.com) to read it!
- I was hired by the Oakland Post as a Reporter Intern for Winter 2012. I just finished writing my first article strictly for them, to be published in the first issue of the Post in January.
- Editing, editing, and more editing.
- Waiting 🙂
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The Rose 