Obstacles

           Just after 10:00 am this morning I received a phone call inquiring my presence for a presidency meeting with the Relief Society. I figured I’d get there by 10:15.  The biggest slow down is the speed limit into town.  Well, normally that’s the biggest slow.

          This morning there were obstacles.

          First obstacle – not so much my obstacle as for others moving headed west – or even north.  There was a dog in the road – either a Husky or German Sheppard – something along that line.  He was wearing a collar and standing in the road.  He wasn’t a threat.  But I thought that he (or she) could get hurt and needed to move out of the way.

          I suppose I could have pulled over and crossed over to it to guide it where?  What would I have done with the dog.  I could have checked the tag in search for a phone number.  I had seen the dog before but I don’t know where.

          I was relieved to see another had pulled over to assist.

          For a brief moment I had different thoughts go through my head – both of which I think I have posted before.  One was about a test given at the University of Utah Institute students – only they hadn’t been given the details of the test.  All of those who arrived to class on time had failed the test.

          I wasn’t a student there and so this is only hearsay – but the instructor (who’s class I had taken) said that there had been several scenarios set up throughout the campus eg. A child with a broken bicycle, a student dropping a stack of books, a man falling . . . and if one had stopped to assist that person of course would be late for class but the lesson was seeing an individual as more important than a grade.  So I felt I had failed not only the dog but passing life’s test.

          Next obstacle: There was a utility vehicle ahead on the road I meant to take but turned on the street to see a man putting up a sign.  I did not see what it said – but when I saw two or three police cars ahead I decided to turn around and take the road I had wanted to initially.

          The utility truck was gone.  Hooray!  I took an unfamiliar road toward my destination – only to find the same utility truck blocking my path at the end of the road. 

          I looked over toward the middle school and could see a fire truck and several more police cars.  That was definitely cause for concern.  I waited for the man to put up yet another sign before he returned to his truck and moved out of the way.  I didn’t know what was happening at the middle school.  The sign the man had put up indicated that the road was closed. 

          When I arrived at the final street where the church is, I saw a truck had backed into a driveway, but not all the way.  The cab was in the middle of the road.  There was enough room to go around it but two guys were coming towards it and I looked to seek approval to move around and hoped that both would know I was there.

          I finally made it to the church!  I had prepared a different thought than the one I had given.  I shared my experience and another that came to mind.  Only it was not my personal experience.  Hearsay again.  But I had no reason to doubt.

          I had been giving a lesson in primary several years ago (probably 1996 or 1997) when one of my students (a boy who had recently moved to our ward from Oklahoma) related the following:

He said he had a primary teacher who worked for the federal building who was already running late for work when she encountered car problems – weather a flat tire or stalled engine, I do not know.  She was still stranded on the freeway when the bomb went off here. 

Often we are faced with obstacles that may seem inconvenient at the time but in the end may work for our good and turn out to be a blessing in the long run - and maybe that’s the thought I was supposed to give as opposed to the one I had prepared.

When I returned home I think I saw that same dog – but in a different area.  I also saw some students from the junior high.  They had missed whatever it was and might not even be aware.  It turns out that the kids were not even in school today as there is a student teacher conference later this afternoon and the instructors were preparing for that.

According to facebook there had been a report of someone burning weeds and somehow it made its way to the school.  Apparently the conference is cancelled but school will start tomorrow as planned.  So glad it was not a shooting.  Still makes me wonder why there were so many police cars at the scene.  I didn’t think Myrtle Creek had that many and wondered if some were from neighboring towns.