Man plans, God laughs.
(Yiddish Proverb)

This month, my youngest child leaves for college. Life has become a jumble of reservations, directions, packing lists, and preparation. Anticipation and dread have mingled in my psyche, and keeping busy with plans serves as a welcome antidote.

She will live on her own, in a large dormitory, with thousands of other young people. Her time will be her own to schedule, and chores her responsibility. Friends will be of her choosing, and she will decide when to complete her coursework, and in what activities to participate. She and her roommate have struck up an electronic acquaintance, and have communicated for several months. My daughter will soon have friends I have never met.

Loss of control looms ahead, a terrifying specter. My daughter has grown into an intelligent, talented, and lovely young woman, and, I’m beginning to sense, this is only peripherally due to any intervention on my part. So much for control.

While budgeting for gas, SUV rental, and hotel accommodations, I assume I have it all handled. Then, a major appliance breaks, and chaos takes over. I have studied where to park, have already filled out the parking pass, have learned where to borrow a cart to transport her belongings into the dorm, and have printed directions as well as a GPS for guidance. These instructions reside in a carefully labeled file folder. Somehow, I sense I will probably get lost anyway, and wander aimlessly through an unfamiliar city.

This is how, deep in my heart, I know God has a sense of humor, and that all the preparation and planning I do, which sometimes borders on OCD, just keeps Him laughing. I hope the chuckles elicited are fond and tolerant.

While I obsess over what to do if the rented SUV breaks down or becomes involved in an accident, if we run out of gas in the hinterlands, or if we discover that her college registration documents are incomplete, life will continue. We can endeavor to choose our own destinies, but unknown factors always intervene.

In a book I read decades ago, Zorba the Greek, the author uses a metaphor for life as someone hanging on to a trembling leaf with virtually nothing to prevent falling. Some people see this state as terror, others as poetry.

Best wishes to all departing college students to experience the poetry.

Hear, O Lord, our humble prayers, and guide Your servants safely in the path of Your salvation, that amid all the changes and chances of this life they may ever be sheltered by Your help. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Belief.net)

Contributed by Carol
Monday August 13, 2012
Liturgical Year B: Week 38
Sunday Gospel reading:
Liturgical Color: Green
Lectionary 19 (Proper 14)
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost