October 3, 2025
A car never dies at a convenient moment. My car's, if not quite death then at least severe injury, this week seemed particularly inconvenient: it happened when my husband was out of town, and my son Nolan, who lives at home and commutes daily to the University of Minnesota, had his car also die a few days earlier. (Unlike mine, his is, sadly, dead-dead. RIP to Earl.)
So my week had some extra hoops to jump. But there were also some silver linings. I ended up taking the car to an auto shop that was only two miles from our home - a very walkable distance, especially with the gorgeous fall weather. We chose the place partly for convenience, but also because I recognized the name as one of the community sponsors of West St. Paul Pride. We at Saint Anne's are also sponsors of Pride and we are good people. By my reasoning, this auto shop would be full of good people, too. And - they were! They had the car diagnosed and fixed within about 24 hours, at a reasonable (for car repairs) rate, and with kindness.
And then there's the fact that I don't know the last time I spent 24 hours at home. Of course, the phone, Zoom, and Taylor Swift's internet make it easy to carry on. And it happened that for this particular 24 hours, anything on my calendar which required driving could be easily adjusted. So most things went on, business as usual. But for 24 hours, there was no running to the store, no running an errand, no running anywhere, unless I was using my feet. I didn't have to worry about construction traffic, or trying to squeeze just one more thing in. That left me with more time. More time to catch up on some planning I needed to do. More time to do some studying and writing. More time to connect with people on the phone. More with my dogs while I did it it all!
I had expected the car issue to be a big hassle. Instead, I found ease: from the mechanics, to the weather, to the calendar. As it turned out, I didn't feel stuck in any of the ways that matter.
My prayer for you this week is for a perceived inconvenience to reveal itself to you as a blessing in disguise. My prayer for you is that the bumps in your week are gentler than they first appear; maybe even blessed in their own way?