The Getting of Wisdom...

Lee and I sat and talked after church on Sunday afternoon...

In the wake of the past few weeks of days where the entire day is engulfed by a bus running late or an unexpected event taking place, Lee and I talked and it became clear that I am coming to a point in my life where I really need to be able to readily discern wisdom for myself - knowing what is God being in charge and providing and what is simply me doing my own thing and having it backfire spectacularly on me!

Let's take the past 48 hours as an example...

Denise picked me up from Kingston station at around about 10:30pm on Sunday night and we drove home. We dropped in at Wollworths in Dickson on the way home. I was exhausted

At 11:45pm I WISELY excused myself with the intention of putting myself to bed - but first I had to download the bus timetables to work out how on earth to get to Gungahlin.

I joined Fernwood last week and started the 12 week "Get Foxy" challenge on Monday. I was booked in for a 6am group training session on Monday morning - but the car was out of action so I needed to catch a bus...

It turned out that the ONLY buses than ran from Civic to Gungahlin left from the OTHER side of Dickson.... The logic in that? I don't know, but this little birdy is going to be singing suggestions in Action's ears about alternate Xpresso bus routes after my little adventure over the past 48 hours...

I discovered I had to walk 5km to catch the closest bus into Gungahlin that would arrive in Gungahlin just before 6am!

I thought - yeah - I will leave at 4am because I don't know how long it will take to walk from home to Dickson College. When I had walked from North Lyneham into neighbouring Lyneham on Australia Day to meet Timothy THAT alone took me almost 30 minutes to walk - with a limp, granted - but still, Dickson was the next suburb over again...

The other thing that I should add here at this point was that I had not slept... By the time my computer (which has a very SLOW download speed) had downloaded all of the appropriate bus timetables and maps it was nearly 2:30 and instead of discerning the WISE course of action, which would have been to catch 2 hours of zzz's, I decided to pull an all nighter surfing the net...

I was only working until 4pm that day I reasoned - I could come home and crash at the end of it... early night - no worries!

So I set out from home at 4am - not knowing how long it would take and not knowing how far it would be (if I had known at that stage, I probably wouldn't have attempted it!) - again, discerning the WISE course of action.

By the time I hobbled to a stop at the bus stop (new sneakers as I had left the old ones in Nowra on Sunday afternoon - thinking that I was being WISE in not carting too much luggage home with me), I sat for two minutes feeling rather triumphant that I had walked 5km (had checked it on Whereis via my mobile after I had realised that I had been walking for a REALLY long time!)! After the glow subsided, I wondered where the bus was? I pulled out my phone - it read 5:28am...

I had missed it by 2 minutes!

After half an hour and no bus, I started to worry that I was waiting at the WRONG stop as I couldn't readily call the exact route to mind and I didn't even know where Majura street was. So in my WISE discernment, I so hobbled across to what I thought was the RIGHT stop (blisters all over my feet by this stage).

I waited for another 20 minutes and thought that perhaps I was at the wrong stop again, so I WISELY hobbled a little further down the bus route. As I sat down at the stop I saw the bus I was trying to catch turn back onto my street another 200 metres down the road!

So I WISELY decided to ring a taxi. By then it was 7am - I had definitely missed the gym but still had another hour to get to work (gear in my bag)- WISE move Fi! As I started to make my cab booking - my credit ran out - I had used it up checking out Whereis.com - WISE move Fi!

So I sat back on the bus stop seat and closed my eyes and prayed. As I opened my eyes - the bus that I had been trying to catch - heading back into Civic approached!

Great! That bus goes out to Russell, out to the airport and then loops back into the city! I will get back to the city and catch the express to Gungahlin and still be in time for work!

So I hopped on the bus and dozed off...

I was woken up by the bus driver saying - bus terminates here, you have to get off - (need a WTF smiley!)

The next bus back to Civic was due in 10 minutes...

At 7:30am I txt my boss with my last txt and asked her to call me. I explained that I was going to be a little late - no worries - she would wait for me. Each bus that turned up, terminated at that stop and became a school run. At 8:25am I stopped one of the drivers and asked when the next bus would be back to Civic? Yeah - 10 minutes

So I called Vodafone and begged them to give me some emergency credit. They gave me 10 minutes of free talk time. So I rang my boss back and explained the situation - she would drop her eldest to school and continue to wait for me. I rang Bel and asked if I could arrange a lift but dh had the car - she would ring me back once the kids got to school.

At 8:45am I pulled up the next bus driver - he got off the bus and looked at the timetable posted at the stop. In my exhaustion, I hadn't noticed it.

9:18am

FINALLY once on the 9:18am bus, we began the LONGEST route possible back to the city

My boss called - how far away was I?? When it became apparent that I was not going to make it into the CITY until at least 10am - the bus snaked its way through Brindabella Business Park, the airport, and when my boss had called me, was makingits way THROUGH ADFA (I didn't realise that buses were allowed onto military sites!), let alone across to Gungahlin, she told me not to come in today - that she would take the day off.

So annoyed at myself, I talked it all through with Bel when she called to see where I was (just after my boss had hung up.)

So on the way home, I went to the motor registry and transferred my licence to an ACT one, and found out exactly what I had to do to get my car re-registered in the ACT.

It turns out, that my brother, a mechanic in NSW, couldn't do my rego check for an ACT licence - a fact that I had not considered as I drove the car to Nowra on Friday for my brother to register and repair.

Instead, I had to take it to an ACT approved registration inspection station to get it checked and if it failed, I could then apply for a two week permit to drive it around until the faults were dealt with.

WISE move driving the car to Nowra Fi - I muttered under my breath!

After I finished at the registry, I hobbled over to the bus stop and as I saw the bus approaching - I did not look carefully enough at the number. As the bus drove past me, I realised that it was one of the buses I needed to get me home and when I checked the timetable I saw that it would be another half an hour to the next one.So, I WISELY decided to hobble from Northbourne Ave over to Mouat St where there would be a third bus route alternative become available...

While waiting at Mouat St bus stop - decided that I would rather be ON a bus and moving rather than waiting for the right bus - so caught the bus into Belconnen.

While there I finalised my volunteering ACT form for a Mental Health support program called Connections (me supporting others that is), and ducked up to the library to join and check out the services. While sitting at the computer at 1:30am trying check my email - so that I didn't have to pay for it at home - I started nodding off at the computer, so I WISELY decided to cut my losses and catch the bus home.

At home, I had a massive meal of chicken and bacon meatballs and then fell, exhausted into bed at 4pm.

And that was the last I saw of Monday...

My housemate, Denise, came in at 8am this morning to ask if I was going to work today???

I start at 8am!

I borrowed money from my flatmate (I had only enough to last me out the week on the buses) and caught a taxi to work - arriving just before 9am

Peak hour traffic!

My boss left for work and casually called over her shoulder when she left that her husband would be home somewhere between half an hour and two hours...

I am going to be fired!

But when my boss's dh got home, it turned out that he had a day off and just wanted to be free to just hang out and relax.

So I spend the day with A playing and hanging out as per usual.

In the afternoon, H went up to the school to pick up his 5 year old C, which was lovely because I didn't have to manage two bikes!

And when boss got home and I signed off, she joked that she would txt me at 7am tomorrow morning to make sure that I didn't sleep through my alarm...

Then, as I had spent all of my remaining money on the cab fare to work - it turned out to be more than I borrowed off my flatmate - I wandered up the hill to Bel's (yep - just around the corner from my boss) to beg for a bus fare...

Bel did one better and drove me across to Melba for another job interview.

When I got there, the lady came to the front door and told me that she had found someone else and was going to email me tonight (thank's for the txt lady!)

So Bel graciously turned around and came back for me.

So I sit here tonight, in Bel's dining room - SO glad that I have friends like Bel, who would go out of their way for me!

I will sleep here tonight JUST to be doubly sure that I am NOT late for work tomorrow!

And then tomorrow night I will be picking up my car!

The getting of wisdom has been and will continue to be, I am sure, an interesting journey...

So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life." 15 Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream

1 Kings 3:11-15