MARTHA’S MEWS
Vol.1, No. 7
Yesterday, I had a lesson in … life on the front
lines. Today, in the sea, I found the
“meaning.” Yesterday afternoon, I went
to work, dressed and mentally ready for the job of cashier in the diner. However, when I walked into the office, the
manager told me that I was being “deployed” to the softball field to cook
hotdogs until Ben could arrive. (He’s in
the Navy and there are ships in port so he had to work at his real job.)
Since I don’t need a huge amount of change
for the hotdog stand, I dumped some money into the register and took off with
the driver – a huge Puerto Rican hulk from the Bronx
named Cruz. This man is a wooly mammoth
but has the sweet face of a 5 year old.
He has had horrific experiences – not the least of which included
sitting next to a cousin in a car when a gang drove up and literally blew his
cousin’s head off – all over Cruz! He
spent many months in psychiatric counseling following this episode. And now he’s in the Navy in Crete
and driving me to the softball field.
We got into the car and he said, “So, Martha,
how are you?” We chit-chatted for awhile
and then he spied a young lady wearing much too few clothes. “Oh boy,” says Cruz. “I don’t need to see that! I love my wife and all but I am a man, for
God’s sake, and when I have an itch, I need to scratch it.”
“OKAY GOD,” I screamed in my spirit. “I’m a music and English teacher here. I need to be in a studio discussing chest
voice vs. head voice – or in a classroom explaining the difference between
adverbs of time and place. HELP!” Since the drive from the club to the
softball field is a merciful 2 minutes, we arrived and began the process of
unloading the van before anything more could transpire.
Cruz then said “So, I hear you work for the
chaplain.” He then told me that he
needed some help but his talk with the Catholic chaplain had been limited to “I
forgive you.” “OH BOY! We are in the middle of the softball game,
people everywhere – where oh where do I begin!!!”
And then, before I had sold more than 3
bottles of water, Ben arrived. So, I
took my money out of the register, walked back to the club, put that money plus
a bit more into the register in the diner and started selling food. Before I could blink, here came Damas (the
cashier supervisor). “Martha, how much
money you put in your register?” It
seems the overage/shortage reports had finally worked their way into the office
and now THIS was the time to count all the change fund. Nikos, the bartender, was drafted to take
over my register and I went to the office.
We counted ALL the money – even the safe full of quarters (which I
hadn’t counted since 27 June). The euro
fund balanced perfectly and the dollar fund was $17 short. All could be accounted for – whew!
No, I did not go back to the cashier’s
post. NOW I had to sit at the computer
for 2 hours and finish a spreadsheet on customer satisfaction for the national
MWR survey! Nikos was frantic because he
was working 2 registers at the same time.
I was totally frazzled because somebody else was making change with my
register AND …
But the night finally ended – they all do,
don’t they – my register balanced and I came home. This morning, I went for my swim and guess
what I found on the sea bottom? As I stepped
into the water, I could hardly contain my disappointment because it was really
rough – big waves. This makes snorkeling
a bit challenging, to say the least. But
as I began to swim, I saw something on the sand that really spoke to me. At first, I couldn’t see anything but sand
and garbage being tossed here and there in the rough water. As I kept swimming, I noticed a few tiny
little fish, trying their best to pick bits of food off the sandy rocks. They would get really close and then a wave
would come and toss them away. As I
watched, I noticed that these little guys never gave up – they just kept
swimming back to the place where they believed their breakfast grew.
A little further on, I found a little crab
scurrying along the sand. This little guy
was all alone – not another member of his family in sight. When the big waves came along, he burrowed
down under the sand and hid there till it was safe to come out. He never once turned around or acted like he
was lost. He seemed to know where he was
going and just kept heading in that direction.
Do you get it yet? Although yesterday seemed very fragmented and
frantic to me, I kept remembering what my favorite German said to me “Don’t
panic, Martha. God’s got it all in control.” When life starts tossing us around, we’ve
just gotta remember that story about Jesus and the disciples. They were in a boat and a storm came up. Jesus was ASLEEP, minding His own business
and not a bit worried – but the disciples were frantic! Now we have the “Book” so we know what to do
when storms come – they didn’t. I have
to force myself to remember that I have to burrow down deep and just hold on
til the storms subside and not to lose my way.
I have to keep swimming back to the Rock because it is that Rock that
holds the key to my very existence!
I’m not sure how this thing with Cruz will
continue – it was enough for me to know that somebody has seen me in context
with the chaplain – getting the God connection out in the light. Oh yes, and before I left the office
yesterday, while the men and Ann were engaged in their usual tossing to and fro
of extremely ‘colorful’ language, Ann laughingly said to me, “Now, Martha, I’m
putting you out in public so you are not going to be able to use the same
language you use here in the office.
You’re going to have to clean up your mouth.” Although I never SAY anything, it is being
noticed that my mouth is not full of cursing and foul talk – this is the
salt and light thing, folks!
Be encouraged today that if life is tossing your
boat around, Jesus is in that boat with you and He ain’t worried! In fact, He is so calm that He is having a
little nap! Sometimes it’s good to write
stuff to somebody else and then SAVE IT … I’m really preaching to myself here.
Blessings to all of you,
M
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