It Was A Bug

Water has always been my creative medium for thoughts, blogging, coming up with solutions and so much more. Today I was doing my late afternoon pool workout in our back yard. I had a very nice brunch replete with fennel seed cheddar cheese casserole. 45 minutes into it, I crunched down on a tasty morsel. At first. A second later, it took on a not so fennelly texture, and a not unpleasant but quite strong flavor. I unladylike spit onto our white marble coping and saw it was not a fennel seed at all. I quickly picked it up and saw tiny legs and 4 very skinny legs. But what struck me most was a white smashed something akni to when we were kids and we would pull off the firefly lights from the bodies and place them all over us to glow. And so, my stomach immediately rebelled. I threw up the contents of my late lunch, and I can tell you that black bug looked nothing like a fennel seed! I think back on times when in the water, I had my most peaceful moments. When my Grandfather was passing unbeknownst to me, I had started swimming laps again in our childhood community indoor pool and an old man who I never saw again joined me and praised me on my freestyle stroke (had to be an angel). All during my high school years when I won so many ribbons and beat so many women in tournament meets who were twice my size, being a lifeguard and saving lives, coming up with ideas in the shower, sitting on the edge of the ocean in a beach chair, and later in my 50's excelling in Master Swimming in the early hours of the mornings with ideas brewing in the water for the day ahead. And so, today I realize even though I am in the water, and it is an environment in which I always have creative thoughts and I am in my best me moments, there still will be the very same insects that entered the Garden that fateful day. I will keep my mouth closed now, when I am working out in the pool after my late breakfast, lunch or early dinner. I will be mindful that while I am unable to take notes, jump right out and blog, or store things up in my mind for longer than my workout, I still can enjoy all of the creation that God has given us. I will appreciate knowing that a fennel seed is a fennel seed and will not make me vomit. Isn't it so interesting that our minds have the capability of causing our bodies to be ill so quickly? And then again, I thank God for all of my frailties because if I did not have that reaction and instantly want to share it because of who God is and how He has provided every aspect of Creation, you and I would not be here right now sharing these thoughts together. I praise God and thank Him for creating me just the way I am and loving me so much, that He will not keep me in my sinful state, reacting to my physical limitations and a mind that is so strong it can control my body. Praise God we can daily come to Him and ask Him to make our minds captive to Him. That we can give every thought captive so that we do not vomit in the face of anything. Even so, it would be hard to not fathom vomiting that taste out of my mouth. Just the thought.... and so I instead turn my thoughts to the One who knows me and all my foibles - in water or on dry land - - I would not trade ANYTHING to be in His presence - - - maybe except that bug with 4 legs and an exploded abdomen!