My friend Ed Cyzewski recently wrote,

At this point in my life, sacrificing a bit of consistency for the sake of picking only my best thoughts, rather than sharing ALL of my thoughts, feels like either a wise or a “less dumb” shift. I truly do need to write a lot, but it doesn’t all necessarily need to be shared.

Glad he did.

I will not share all of my thoughts here in this brief update and what to expect going forward here at The Edge of the Inside.

In Action

Tornados came for a visit to our area on May 6, and threatened a few times after that in May. Flooding accompanied the storms so much Tuttle suffered more than $4 million damage to roads and bridges. That might not sound like much, but for a community whose population is just north of 6000, that represents quite a hit. We have not heard the totals for Bridgecreek and Northern Grady County.

Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief, among other agencies, showed up to help. They staged out of our church, Snow Hill. By the end of May the groups had gone to prepare to help in the aftermath of other disasters in our State.

Rain totals for May smashed the record books. Estimates for our area neared 30″ for the month. We have had more this month, though we did get an 11 day reprieve.

Our youngest daughter and her family sold their house in Oklahoma City and planned their move to Tuttle. As with most things, the schedule did not work out as hoped. We moved them into our house as the expected close at the end of April did not materialize. They closed about ten days later which set us up for lots of work in a short amount of time. We were expecting grandson number 3 in early June. The 5th was the due date.

Considering all else going on, that is all the normal things that come with life and work, we managed to move at a quick pace to remodel their house before grand baby day. Except for texturing once paneled or wall-papered walls, putting down pre-engineered hardwood floors, and one plumbing job, we remodel hacks did it all. We had some great help along the way. We got the job done and cleaned up with little time to spare.

Oliver Fox was born June 10. He and his mother did their part to get us some extra days. We barely made it. But we did. They came home to their home. Yes, there are still some things to finish. But the things Tommie wanted done before coming home were completed.

More importantly to us, Fox got to go home to his new house. Max is getting accustomed to his new surroundings too.

Not Missing

All of the events and experiences of the past two months provided plenty to think about. The occasion to write more just did not present itself. One must always make a choice as to what is most important. We attended to those things that rose to that level. I set writing on the back burner. There has not been a podcast offered here since April 10.

Soon things will get back to a more consistent pattern around here. It still may not be that I have something to offer more than once a week but I am going to keep Ed’s reflection in mind. We need not put everything we write out there. Some of it is for our own benefit to think all the way through whatever prompted taking up the keyboard. Other times the temptation to write at the outset of an event may fall to the need to wait – to be slow to speak and quick to listen.

The podcast will return. Some new equipment came in.

I am making some updates to the site and hopefully those will be worked all the way through by the weekend. But, you may be sure we will always be in action.

Until then . . . slow to speak and quick to listen . . .