FINE

Fine. Your basic multi-purpose word.

"How're you doing?" "Fine."

Upon capitulating in a minor spat, "Fine! *mildly sarcastically* Have it your way!"

"WOOHOO! You look fiiii-ine in that outfit."

Fine - what you pay the court when you overpark at the meter.

When looking at any contract, of course, you need to get out a magnifying glass to read the fine print.

Fine - interesting adjective, as in Ollie's perpetual comment to Stan, "What a fine mess you've gotten us into this time!"

Then there's this one, which I learned about while working in a chemical dependency treatment program: F.I.N.E. I won't give you the original version, but the staff posited that when someone responded "I'm fine" to "How're you doing?", what they were really saying was:

I'm Fouled-up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Exhausted. (F.I.N.E.!)

Since learning THAT definition, I've been very careful to not answer "How are you?" with "Fine." *chuckle*

Certainly since Her Horribleness came through town, at least 3 of the 4 have been right on target, though. I'm not going to tell you which 3, since they change from day to day with one exception: Exhausted.

There is something just plain exhausting about not living in your own intact home (very grateful for the gift of the place where I am living, but it's not home), about finding the energy to deal with getting repairs done, about telling and hearing 'storm stories' - some much more harrowing than anything I've had to live with, about accomplishing those things which are essential and that I truly want to do from the depth of my heart.

Intellectually, I realize that this is what is to be expected at this time. It just frustrates the heck out of me that it takes so long to regain my energy and enthusiasm after I do whatever the next thing on my list is. I tend to be an introvert. Nothing wrong with that for a pastor. It just means that I need solitude to recharge my batteries from time to time. Generally, this is not a problem; however, hurricane recovery is an extraordinary event.

Guess it's time to take my own advice and be gentle with myself. Excuse me, please. I think I'm going to go and hide .... er .... find a quiet place and talk with God for a while. Catch up with you later!