Is life crazy?

Sometimes life is just nuts. Work, family and church responsibilities definitely add up and sometimes equal craziness. I was talking to a few friends the other day, one of them works, her husband is the young mens president and they have a little boy. She just said, "he's busy, I hardly ever see him". I have heard this a lot lately. We are busy people. So busy that sometimes our marriages get put on the back burner and other times off the stove!

After this conversation among others, I found something that hit a chord and I think leads us to our answer of how we deal with these times.

In his book, "Be Master of Yourself"Elder Robert L. Backman tells this story: (oh, side note, he married me and Zach, so we are partial. :))

"When William Buchanan moved to Anchorage, Alaska, he assumed duties as chief of the Civilian Engineering Division of the Alaska Defense Communications Agency. That was a fancy title for a nuts-and-bolts job of maintaining a fleet of B-52s across a tremendous, often icebound area with little more than baling wire and adhesive tape. In fact, the job was such a man-killer that after a few frustrating days and sleepless nights, Buchanan called in his deputy assistant, Ed Gallant, to get some priorities.

Gallant said, "May I suggest priority one? Let's go fishing."

"What?" exclaimed Buchanan, but that Saturday, they took to the lake, where Gallant led them to school after school of migrating salmon.

Buchanan was nagged by guilt not to be at his desk, but then came the lesson.

Ed Gallant sat down on a fallen log in a cove and pointed. "Look carefully," he said. "just beneath the surface of the water are several huge salmon." Then he pointed to a ripple out in the channel where thousands of salmon were migrating upstream. He said, "they're fresh from the sea, and strong. But tomorrow they'll reach the Russian River Falls. They'll make desperate leaps up the face of the falls. Some of them will be too spent to make it, and they'll be dashed back against the rocks below. And then finally they'll die from sheer exhaustion."

He looked back toward the salmon in the cove and commented, "These are different. Some instinct has brought them to this quiet place. It's as if they know the falls are just ahead. Tomorrow they'll continue their migration, rested for whatever comes." (Reader's Digest, December 1983, p. 51.)

I loved this. The story applies to our individual lives as well as to our marriages. We need to take the time to rest, be together and build our relationship so we will have the strength for the "falls". The "apples" for the next little bit will be more focussed on this.

What is refreshing to you as a couple? What do you love to do together?

The apple for the day is: talk about this. If nothing comes to mind that is totally refreshing, that is okay, brainstorm and find something that you think you might love and try it.

I totally thought of my brother in law when I was posting this story, he will probably say "sweet, this means we should go fishing more!" lol!