Tiny Ticks

I was going to write more about my books I am reading, but this came to me this morning as stirring something in my soul .

Bob and I have been making a concerted effort to get out and walk everyday in the woods behind our house. We do as soon as he comes back from dropping the kids off at school, before the heat becomes unbearable. We take the dogs cause they love it too. When we come back we look for ticks. Monday I had one on my leg, but not Tuesday. Today though I kept feeling something crawling on my legs, but couldn't find it. Finally I saw little dots appear on my shorts, and realized they were little tiny baby ticks, some call them invisible ticks. I ran got a credit card to scrape them off.

Now I am not good at making metaphors or similes, but it made me think of the little things I let pile up in my room, my office, my house, until they are big mounds of stuff to clean up. And this led me to think of the little things I ignore in my own life, my emotions, my spiritual life, my habits, that eventually pile up and get the best of me. And get between me and God, me and my relationships, me and myself. I then have to go through and do a thorough house cleaning. Instead if I had taken care of the little thing in the first place, I wouldn't have to be putting major energy and time out on the this huge pile of junk, clutter, weeds, mess whatever you want to call it. If I had spent that time in prayer and meditation to begin with. If I had not eaten the first bite. If I had acknowledged and dealt with a problem, conflict, anger in the first place.....

I am not a disciplined orderly person, it takes me work to be one, but I have realized over the years it pays to be one. I won't be able to get all these ticks the first time, but they certainly they have my attention and I'll be on guard for them. I remember one time two of our dogs got loose and ran away into the woods for almost a week. Finally found them, they were covered in burrs, ticks, fleas, you name it, and stunk to high heaven. It took us forever to get all the present stuff off of them, and then to get the ones that kept cropping up later as well.

I am now going to get these little baby ticks off to the best of my ability, so I don't have a bigger mess later. I am not going to take my first bite, I will spend time in prayer and meditation this morning, I will pay attention to my feelings and acknowledge and deal with them as needed. Just for today...so I am not having to clean up a bigger mess later.