when i got my first iPhone in 2012, one of the first quotes that i saved to my notes is, "meekness is power under control". i don't know who said it. i just know i heard it in during a church talk and i immediately jotted it down for further contemplation. in the many years since i wrote it down, i've pondered upon it many times. i feel like only recently i've been able to start to grasp the breadth of what that saying actually means.
back in may, i surprised athena blythe with a trip to an outdoor dog adoption festival, Woofstock, at a local town square. i was surprised too because i was planning on merely taking her to a very fancy pet store located on the town square. she likes to look at all the purple velvet dog furniture and bedazzled personalized $400 dog collars. happening upon a full on outdoor festival complete with trained circus dog show tricks, food trucks, and 100s of dogs up for adoption is about as happy an accident i can think of in athena blythe's book. as we arrived, we noticed a sky full of increasingly foreboding clouds but we decided to press forward and stay as long as we could. we truly had a great time. athena blythe petted a majority of the dogs and proffered copious amounts of expert dog advice to actual pet owners. she renamed several dogs for the animal rescue agencies who clearly phoned in the all important animal naming duty. we had a glorious time! after 2 hours, we started making our way back to our car. it had been lightly sprinkling for about 20 minutes so we were pushing our luck on avoiding the downpour. we were a couple of blocks from our car. about 1/3 of the way, a torrential downpour broke out. we were almost instantly soaked through. i tried to make walking in the rain part of the adventure because it quickly became apparent that athena blythe was in sensory overload. we jumped in puddles and laughed at how wet we were getting. we arrived at the crosswalk just as the all-female police officers on duty had let the previous large group of pedestrians cross the busy main road. it was less than ideal, but that's how traffic works. there were hundreds of cars on the road at this same time and the officers directed them to take their turn to continue on their way. it was still steadily raining as we waited. two different groups of all-female-post-dog-festival attendees walked up and joined our group we waiting for our turn to cross. one lady started screaming at the police officers for not stopping traffic to let them go ahead and cross. it was terrible to witness. no one is happy to be stuck in the rain, but she was absolutely losing her mind on this poor young police officer and made the situation so much worse. she was using very vile language toward the police officers. i was trying to distract athena blythe from this scene by making standing in the rain part of our game. then another lady, who was with her teenage daughter, joined in at screaming at the police officers about what a terrible job she thought they were doing. these officers who had been on duty ensuring our safety the entire time we were enjoying ourselves at the festival who were now directing traffic in pouring rain. i wanted to say something to shut those horrible women up, but i didn't want to sound like one of them or be confused with agreeing with their behavior. these women looked like regular moms i would see at PTA but for some reason in response to the frustrating but not completely horrible situation, they were acting so atrociously. finally, the mother of the teenage daughter shouted one of the most vile phrases i've ever heard at one of the police officers. my soul was aching because poor athena blythe was in distress and was also being subjected what i would consider HBO level crass language by fellow women and mothers. i felt like my teammates were letting me down. we finally crossed and as i passed the officer i loudly shouted with a smile, "thank you for being here today!" i'm sure it only annoyed the other women there but i couldn't leave those officers thinking everyone was attacking them. i dragged athena blythe across the street as fast as i could to get away from those women so we would not be stuck with them at another crosswalk. the next place to cross was at the end of a tunnel where dozens of families were waiting out the rain. i didn't stop there. i couldn't imagine risking another terrible scene. i picked up athena blythe and put her on my shoulder and ran all the way to our car in the downpour while everyone in the tunnel watched. what had started as such a promising activity turned into a distressing event.
back in may, i surprised athena blythe with a trip to an outdoor dog adoption festival, Woofstock, at a local town square. i was surprised too because i was planning on merely taking her to a very fancy pet store located on the town square. she likes to look at all the purple velvet dog furniture and bedazzled personalized $400 dog collars. happening upon a full on outdoor festival complete with trained circus dog show tricks, food trucks, and 100s of dogs up for adoption is about as happy an accident i can think of in athena blythe's book. as we arrived, we noticed a sky full of increasingly foreboding clouds but we decided to press forward and stay as long as we could. we truly had a great time. athena blythe petted a majority of the dogs and proffered copious amounts of expert dog advice to actual pet owners. she renamed several dogs for the animal rescue agencies who clearly phoned in the all important animal naming duty. we had a glorious time! after 2 hours, we started making our way back to our car. it had been lightly sprinkling for about 20 minutes so we were pushing our luck on avoiding the downpour. we were a couple of blocks from our car. about 1/3 of the way, a torrential downpour broke out. we were almost instantly soaked through. i tried to make walking in the rain part of the adventure because it quickly became apparent that athena blythe was in sensory overload. we jumped in puddles and laughed at how wet we were getting. we arrived at the crosswalk just as the all-female police officers on duty had let the previous large group of pedestrians cross the busy main road. it was less than ideal, but that's how traffic works. there were hundreds of cars on the road at this same time and the officers directed them to take their turn to continue on their way. it was still steadily raining as we waited. two different groups of all-female-post-dog-festival attendees walked up and joined our group we waiting for our turn to cross. one lady started screaming at the police officers for not stopping traffic to let them go ahead and cross. it was terrible to witness. no one is happy to be stuck in the rain, but she was absolutely losing her mind on this poor young police officer and made the situation so much worse. she was using very vile language toward the police officers. i was trying to distract athena blythe from this scene by making standing in the rain part of our game. then another lady, who was with her teenage daughter, joined in at screaming at the police officers about what a terrible job she thought they were doing. these officers who had been on duty ensuring our safety the entire time we were enjoying ourselves at the festival who were now directing traffic in pouring rain. i wanted to say something to shut those horrible women up, but i didn't want to sound like one of them or be confused with agreeing with their behavior. these women looked like regular moms i would see at PTA but for some reason in response to the frustrating but not completely horrible situation, they were acting so atrociously. finally, the mother of the teenage daughter shouted one of the most vile phrases i've ever heard at one of the police officers. my soul was aching because poor athena blythe was in distress and was also being subjected what i would consider HBO level crass language by fellow women and mothers. i felt like my teammates were letting me down. we finally crossed and as i passed the officer i loudly shouted with a smile, "thank you for being here today!" i'm sure it only annoyed the other women there but i couldn't leave those officers thinking everyone was attacking them. i dragged athena blythe across the street as fast as i could to get away from those women so we would not be stuck with them at another crosswalk. the next place to cross was at the end of a tunnel where dozens of families were waiting out the rain. i didn't stop there. i couldn't imagine risking another terrible scene. i picked up athena blythe and put her on my shoulder and ran all the way to our car in the downpour while everyone in the tunnel watched. what had started as such a promising activity turned into a distressing event.
that was the day i finally had a more complete understanding of "meekness is power under control". satan tries to imitate anything good in order to trick us. in that situation, those women thought they were being powerful because they were loudly expressing themselves. but that's not true power at all. there's no power in being impatient with inconvenience! true power is being meek enough to not lose control in a stressful situation. true power is making a difficult situation better, even if it is only through patient words. true power is the knowledge that i'm a daughter of Heavenly Father and i was entrusted with the job of caring for my children. i could have succumbed to anger and weakness and screaming. i was sorely tempted to! but that's not power. satan wants us to think that is power, but those women were so weak, only thinking of themselves and using language that no one should be using. i'm no longer angry at them. i'm sad for them. sad that something as unfulfilling as losing control and hurting another person has taken root in their heart as a expression of power. i hope that incident was very out of character for them too. i won't lie and say that i never lose my cool or say things i can't take back. that happens more than i'd like to admit. but that day i recognized something in myself that i wanted to feel again, to not let stress turn me into a person i don't like or recognize, the ability to have power under control, .
1 comment:
YES YES YES!
I love when you post stuff like this. This is a quote I shall put in my phone as well.
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