Today’s blog post is going to be about a great joy. So the headline for the blog, and the above video may seem to be a little off kilter to the subject I want to tell about. Yet it is, for me, vital and crucial to understand the above first, to be able to really experience the joy that I want to talk about.
I have had confusion, and sorrow, and certain forms of emotional suffering in recent days, over the event at Worlds of Fun that I described in my most recent three blog posts. I found my life on hold and in disarray in many areas, without motivation to do things I knew that I should, uncertain my efforts would make a difference..
And I voiced and verbalized that, not in despair, though perhaps I felt despair, but in confusion and HOPE, that something could change, that someone would listen (I had contemplated writing a post titled “who cares”). I offered it to God and the world.
And Sunday I got proof that God listens, and that there is an answer to “who cares?” At Worlds of Fun.
The whole visit began with positive things, which were also confusing and crazy. I entered the park and went to the Gateway Refresh Station to get an Icee. When I brought my pass up on the phone in the app, whenever she went to scan the phone, the screen went blank. Yet Darika made the moment fun instead of frustrating
My phone continued to play lead to the evening’s plot. Arriving at the Sand Dune Diner, I once again tried to use my pass, this time for the dining plan, only to have the brightness on the phone go to very dim, and when I tried to pull up the brightness slider, as I told the lady at the register, Hamliso, I know it should be right there, but I can’t see it, and when -I try to swipe it, nothing happens.
I tried again, offered her the phone, -she looked at the phone, made a small adjustment somehow, and it was bright as day, and the pass scanned.
The meal was consumed with satisfaction, and we were on our way back to the front gate through Africa. Jasini and I had split up, my seeking an Icee at The Oasis, and finally finding one at Jack’s, while she used the restroom. On the way to Jack’s I passed the G’rilla Grill, site of my recent woes, not looking that way, and finally sat down just past the railroad trestle dividing Africa and Scandinavia. When I looked at my Text, I found Jasini, having finished at the restroom, had filled her drink at G’rilla Grill, and wanted me to come back there.
Returning the short distance I found Jasini with Magee, one of the managers of the Grill, who had seen me go by, and unable to get my attention, had asked Jasini to ask me to come back. She hadn’t been on duty the night of the inicdent, but had read about it on the blog, and apologized for what happened. While she had not been there to know all that happened, she said “You are our friends” and wanted us to feel comfortable at the park.
I asked her if it was okay to do so, and then gave her a side by side shoulder hug. “I don’t want to do anything inappropriate” I said, “but it seems the right thing to do. I may cry on my way out of the park I feel lo happy.”
I mentioned that I had come to the realization before Sunday night that Jasini and I would be able to enjoy the park this year, but had wondered if we would ever again find that magic spark that had been part of our park experience for the first 24 years. While I am not back to that spark yet, I told Magee I knew now it was possible, and felt much closer to it than I had previously thought possible.
God answered me in my confusion, showing me the care of people at Worlds of Fun, My Wilderness is becoming a sacred space, a fruitful garden, a place to rejoice with others. Misunderstanding can lead to greater accord, when we yield our confusion and sorrow and suffering. They can lead to a World of Fun. For many figurative. But for me Literal.
Unless something more urgent comes up as a subject, I will have my next post on the Fourth of July festivities at Worlds of Fun. The small part of them that I observed. Until then, remember to “Come Lift Up Your Sorrows” for then you might find “Joy in The Morning”. (oc even evening).
At The Rainbow 