How a Waffle Maker Saved My Life

From 10/29-11/02 I stayed at a beautiful monastery in Arizona. It was a wonderful way to relax, worship, and live in community amongst the monks, deacons, nuns, and volunteers. Here are some beautiful pictures.

I also was able to have a blast in Tombstone where the Battle of the OK Carrel happened.

Then I visited my best friend and his wife and he and I went to the Tucson Comic Con. I even got to meet Jake the Snake Roberts. And I reconnected with the Hooters twins I use for promotional materials. It was a wonderful weekend.

When I got home I had a box waiting for me on my front door. I figured someone bought me a birthday gift. I opened it up and found a waffle maker. There was only one problem.

The case of the mistaken waffle maker

After being disappointed that I didn’t own a waffle maker, I went the next morning to the apartment manager and found out the name Stacie was the girl who used to live in my apartment. I told the manager I’d take care of it. And that was the plan on Wednesday. Until...

My hometown community was destroyed by fire and firepower. Bullets slained 12 victims at Borderline Bar & Grill, including a former student’s father, a former student from a past school of mine, and other lovely members of my community. Plus many of my friends and family were evacuated or preparing to be. I was broken all day and night. Tears. Non stop tears of having no power.

But then there was Stacie’s waffle maker. UPS and the waffle maker company were no help. Neither would forward to the new address. I was told if I sent it back to the company, it would take weeks to get it back to Stacie. That was unacceptable.

In a world that went from pure joy, in which I felt in control to a nightmare outside of my control, the only thing I could do is make sure Stacie got her waffle maker.

So I repackaged it, took it to UPS, and forwarded it myself. Everyone told me I should have just dropped off at UPS and let them worry about it.

But I couldn’t. I needed to feel the ability to be in control, and somehow, this meaningless act of sending a waffle maker gave me the feeling that I can still help someone in some way.

What started as a dissapointed inconvenience became a THE very act that kept me sane.