outWORD by Matte Downey

I have been receiving calls from a fax machine for…oh…for about 5 or six weeks now. The calls happen pretty much everyday, Monday to Friday, sometimes starting as early as 7:30 am and usually in a sequence of 5 or 6 calls at 5-minute intervals as the machine is obviously programmed to automatically redial when it does not get through. After a few days of this, I was getting slightly annoyed so I pressed *69 and got the number and had my husband send a fax asking them to stop calling me and letting them know they had reached a residence and not another fax machine. It was no use. The calls continued. I tried to look up the number on the internet but only got a location…no name or address because the number was being serviced by a third-party phone provider. Two weeks into this, I called Bell and told them about my problem. They promised to sort it out, but it would take a few days. That was about 3 weeks ago and I have begun to make peace with the possibility that the fax machin

Visitors and projects and several birthday celebrations have kept me from writing much in the past few weeks, but today the house is quiet (except for the snoring cats and the dishwasher) and I can once again take a few moments to sit quietly and mull over the lessons being offered, along with homework, on the journey of life. This past week has been a seminar in EXPECTATIONS. We had some family members visiting us for a week and we had made plans to complete some outdoor projects, take in some beautiful sights and do a bit of walking around our neck of the woods. That was before the rain started. For four days in a row we experienced everything the wettest, windiest and coldest May on record could deliver and there was no way we could do anything outdoors, so we modified our plans and decided to shop for a few things for our home. We spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday driving from store to store checking out coffee tables and when we finally decided on the right one, the

Today was supposed to be a yard work day. We bought a house that is just over a year old and it needs some landscaping - no, let me rephrase that - ALL the landscaping needs to be done. I have been trying to get at it, and even arranged for some friends to come over this weekend to help out with the heavier work, but it has turned out to be a totally rainy and cold day, so I am stuck inside...alone. Sigh. I like to work outside. I like to work on things that others can see and admire. I like to work together with people on projects. There is nothing wrong with that, I know, but today God is speaking to me about taking care of some things on the inside, working on the places that hardly anyone gets to see. The inside is what I have to live with every day and it is up to me whether it will be a well-kept, tidy, sunny, comfortable and welcoming place or a neglected, gloomy, tight space with dark and dirty corners. I hate cleaning my house, yet it is this weekly chore that makes it a pleas