Friday:  Worked all day and late in the night trying to catch up from being gone for nearly two weeks. Nice break in the day with lunch with my friend, Cari. Yeah.

Saturday: Played golf with Dan, Maria and Matt.  Dan and Maria have some skill.  Matt didn’t play but I’m sure he’s got skill as well.  Melissa . .  not so much.  BUT… I’m working on it.  I’m a highly self-competitve person especially with sports so I’m going to master this.  Watch out, (insert LPGA champion here).  Saturday night I went to the driving range and hit a bunch of golf balls with Dan and Brad.  Brad gave me some great pointers and about 1 out of every 10 swings rocked. OK – maybe a little lower ratio but nevertheless much practicing to be done because you know — If you ain’t got that swing, than you ain’t got a thing – doowap, doowap, something, something.

Sunday:  Full day of church.  God knows I need it.  Had children’s sermon and hospitality lunch so was busy until about 2 pm and then had to be back at 5 pm for revival services which are going great.  Our guest preacher is a great communicator and is bringing some wonderfully challenging messages.  After revival services tonight, the pastoral staff and the revival leadership had some fellowship time at our pastor’s home. Great bunch of folks.

This week will be busy with revival services each night through Wednesday so not sure how much I’ll post or if I’ll have anything worth sharing.  Although that has never stopped me before.

Random Funny:
There’s a little 2 year old in the church nursery that looks like a mini-me of Chris Farley. No, I didn’t get into the communion wine (besides – we’re Baptist. It’s grape juice.)  I told the mom this morning and she said I was the fourth or fifth person to say that.  It’s the hair, the cheeks, the eyes, the smile -  all of it.  Very, very funny.  At lunch today, I kept waiting for him jump on the table or hike his pants up by the belt. Didn’t happen.

That’s about all I got.  Wait . . . .  hmmmmm

Nope, that’s all I got.

A miracle happened last night.  A bonafide miracle.  I can’t believe I forgot to post about it.  How often do you witness a miracle?  Well, probably more than we know but how often to we actually realize we’ve witnessed a miracle?  Not very often at all. So you would think it would resonate with you for a long time and that you would be moved to climb the highest hill and shout into the wind . . "I, Melissa Hatfield, have witnessed a miracle."  So tonight, atop of this magnificent hill, I proclaim the miracle of September 21, 2005:

It was a cool evening and friends had gathered for food and television in the basement of Grady Martin’s home. Neena had prepared a mouth-watering pot of chili and we’d been circling the slow cooker impatiently as it lived up to its name. We were hungry. The mouth-watering aroma of spicy chili on the eve of the Autumn season was so tantalizing it would drive Calista Flockhart to binge.  Although his physique would proof otherwise, Grady has a passionate and reckless relationship with food.  One need only to be around Grady at meal time once to know that you risk your very life if you manage to get between the two.  The final test on the chili had been completed and it was deemed ready to eat.  As if propelled by a broken spring in the couch, Grady sprung across the room to the slow cooker . . . and stopped.  And then it happened. Grady turned to me and uttered the Holy Grail of words that had never fallen on the ears of any Common Grounder . . . "Since it is Melissa’s birthday, she should go first."

There were audible gasps across the room.  The clock stopped.  The people of LOST abandoned their mission, inched towards the camera and peered out from the widescreen with stunned expressions to witness something more spectacular, more amazing than a blown hatch.  Grady let me, nay – INVITED me – to get food before him. 

We looked at each other – each one of us present – and we knew.  We knew we were standing on Holy Ground in that place, at that moment.  None of us could speak and I dare say none of us will utter a word about it again.  But we will always remember and hold dear to our hearts this miraculous moment in time when we can say that time stood still and all was right in the world.

Speaking of beans, Preston treated me to a birthday lunch at El Jimador’s.  Sadly, I had not eaten there in probably a year and was seriously in jeopardy of losing my Jefferson City and FBCJC citizenship.  So, Preston got me right with the world again and we enjoyed a great lunch and great conversation as always.  A special thank you to Preston from one neurotic to another: thanks for liking me even though I don’t know why you do and even though I’m sure you won’t after you get to know me a little better.  It was a great birthday lunch even though I don’t deserve it.  Wait . . . is that an ice cream shop up ahead on the right?  Great . . . our friendship is screwed.  The best I can hope for is to enjoy it while it lasts because like all things, I’m sure it will end in utter failure as the cosmic forces have ensured for me.   

Tonight I had a birthday celebration with my family.  It was a fun night.  We basically chased Blake around.   Not really – he did a great job and played with many things and only tipped over a glass of soda once.  So, he was really having a great night!!  While he did that, we ate pizza, cake and ice cream and watched Miss Congeniality II which was actually quite funny.  I must admit I prejudged the film when I saw it in the theaters but it proved worthy of several moments of laughter.  Even Blake laughed out loud a lot – although his only reasoning was because we were and its proof his gift of discernment has much work to be done.  It was really a nice evening where we could all get together which is very challenging to figure into the schedule.

I’m back to work tomorrow and it will be my first full day in the office since September 9!  Can you believe that? Its been good to be away and to be so busy with new and fun things.  I’ve really enjoyed the past two weeks and I’m sure I’ll be paying for it but it was worth every penny and every extra hour I’ll have to put in in the next weeks to catch up.

I’m going to leave with this great quote I found today:  "To be interested in the changing seasons is . . a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." – George Santayanna, The Life of Reason.   May we all embrace the changing seasons of life and not cling to one that has come and gone.