I don’t think John and I will ever be ordinary tourists. Here we are in Seattle, where we could have visited Pike Place Market or the Space Needle or Mount Rainier. We could have ridden one of the ferries across Puget Sound or gone on a whale watching tour. We did none of those things.
Instead we spent the morning at Kubota Gardens. We lunched at a cafe on Alki Beach. And we spent an hour getting the screen of my iPhone replaced after I…ahem…broke it. And it’s been a lovely day! Allow me, please, to share it in reverse order.
Late this afternoon I set my phone down, just for a minute, where I thought it would be safe. But it wasn’t. It fell and the screen totally shattered.
Everything still worked just fine. But I was getting glass splinters imbedded in my fingertips when I tried to use it. John was incredibly understanding and encouraged me to just get it fixed before we left Seattle. We found a place close by that was able to fix it and get us on the road in half an hour. The kind young man who did the repair even threw in a screen protector and a mini-lecture on the need to be careful…on the house.
I’m still unpacking the emotions that welled up in connection with this relatively minor event. I found myself with a sort of sick knot in the pit of my stomach. Why? I had just received a lesson about resting in the Lord earlier in the morning. (I’ll get to that in a bit…) A few thoughts come to mind.
It’s a bit unnerving to think how dependent I’ve become on my phone. I rely on it for communication, for directions, for information, and as a camera. I make notes on it to remind me of things I want to remember and places I need to be. Ten years ago I didn’t even have a smartphone. Now my phone is like another appendage. When I am out of coverage area I feel lost. Certainly there are benefits to having a smartphone. But can this situation really be good? It is as though when my phone, though still functional, was injured, it affected me physically. I felt much as I would have if I had suffered an injury to my person. This cannot be healthy! I really need to think on this more…
The highlight of the middle of the day was our lunch at Ampersand Cafe on Alki Beach. We had both agreed that the crowded, touristy areas are not nearly as much fun as the off-the-beaten-path places where the locals go. So we explored the coast of Puget Sound by driving through neighborhoods situated on the water.
We began to get a bit hungry just about the time we discovered Alki Beach, a small area of outdoor cafes on one side of the street and beach on the other, with wonderful views across Puget Sound. We enjoyed some unusual sandwiches and a glass of cherry cider while watching the man at a neighboring table share his latte and conversation with a brilliant blue, enormous hyacinth macaw.
Here we were, in the middle of a highly developed, densely populated area. And still we were surrounded by the wonders of God’s amazing creation.
Which takes me back to our morning at Kubota Gardens, an incredibly beautiful public garden with a Japanese theme. We were there nearly two hours and didn’t even see half of the garden. We did see spots of tranquil beauty, one after another. The place that really spoke to my soul was a small pond with a short waterfall at either end. It was filled with enormous koi. And turtles were sunning themselves on the rocks.
I spent some time in reflection and prayer in this serene setting and asked our Father what he would like me to notice, what He wanted to teach me. It struck me that these turtles and koi couldn’t have cared less about what was going on in the wider world. They were not in a hurry. They were not disturbed. They were simply doing what they do, sunning and swimming, and bringing glory to their Creator in the process.
Perhaps there is a lesson there for all of us. Do I really need to rush about? Do I really need to concern myself with as much as I do? Could it be that what I was meant to do is just bask in the love of my Creator, and let the resultant peace be a blessing to others? Could it really be that simple?
“I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.”
—Psalm 131:2
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord; and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”
—Augustine of Hippo
