Sabbath

I find it such a privilege to be able to go to church twice every Sunday. Memories of longing for corporate worship haven't disappeared. I find myself becoming emotional occasionally, particularly when singing the dear old Psalms and hymns. I have heard people sometimes say they are dry or boring but they must not be singing the beautiful words that I am singing. I enjoy singing the praise songs at other times the Psalms and hymns express so much of the Christian faith and the faithfulness and grace of our God.

The weather has been turbulant around here and my head has been affected by it, of course. Last night Kyle had his 25th high school class reunion 15 miles away. We drove separately so that if it was too noisy I could go home. After supper it was announced that a storm with 60 mph winds was on its way. Since our kids were on their own I decided to make a run for it so they wouldn't be alone when it hit. I made it most of the way when the storm hit. It was frightening! It suddenly started to pour down rain and the wind hit at the same time. I couldn't see anything except the white line. Then hail started coming down driven by the wind. I finally saw the white line stop and it appeared that there might be a side road so I bravely decided to drive off. Thankfully it was a side road so I pulled to the side and waited for the worst of the storm to pass. Lightening was striking all around me, my car was moving around from the wind and the hail was hitting my side window so hard that I was afraid it might break! It lasted for what seemed forever but was probably only around 10 minutes or so. The wind slowed, the hail stopped and the rain slowed. I made a run for home and found that I was only about three miles out. When I did get to town I was surprised that one of the sidestreets was almost entirely under water. I was pretty thankful to get home when I did! Kyle sat the storm out and had an easy drive home. I have definitely learned my lesson--I won't try to outrun a storm again!

One of the things I haven't done for at least three years is ride bike. We have enjoyed bike riding as a family quite a bit in the past. My balance is still enough of a problem that i haven't tackled that yet. The bouncing around may not be so great, either. I normally always hold handrails when I go up and down steps but tonight after church I started up stairs without the hand rail and halfway up started tipping over. I think I scared the person behind me. Very strange that my balance isn't so great, so I am just not sure how bike riding would go. I really want to so I might just try it, but a big bump to my head would be disastrous!

Another thing that is a bit of a mystery to me is that my right shoulder and arm still ache a lot and seem to be weaker. It isn't dramatic but is bothersome. I am right handed so I thought that it would improve as I use it more, but it is still noticeably weak to me, although I don't think anyone else would notice. Very strange.