I don’t know how much experience you have with computers, but sometimes, they just won’t do the things you command them to do. Even though they are machines, we talk to them, yell at them, bang on them, huff at them, ask them questions, until finally, when it seems that nothing more can be done,

We reboot.

Restart. Turn it off and turn it on again. Start over. Try another way. Keep trying. Ask for help. Wait just a minute. Calm down. Get perspective. It’s going to be all right.

During the past month, my family has been in the process of a long-distance move. We are thankful to be here at last, and everyone is adjusting to our new place, but I’m not gonna lie to you; some parts of it have been hard. Just like my computer sometimes does, “the move” did some stuff that just wasn’t what we planned or expected.

I was pitifully predictable. I am notoriously bad at transitions and changes, and my dear husband tolerated me while I huffed and puffed, asked questions, pouted and complained. Sorry, dear. Eventually, I did what a person has to do when life does not go exactly as planned.

Reboot.

I restarted. I cleaned stuff up, tried another way, calmed down, got perspective. It really is going to be all right. To prove it to myself, I tackled this day with a detailed to-do list. I’m not kidding when I tell you that “Drink Coffee” was on my list. Sometimes, you just have to check stuff off to prove that you can.

About halfway down my list was “Make a Peach Pie.” So I did. Our neighborhood market had some great-smelling peaches a couple of days ago, and if you know anything about peaches, you know that they don’t last long, so I really needed to hurry up and use the ones I bought. I enjoyed chatting with my mom on the phone while I peeled peaches, and it took about 8 medium peaches for a pie’s worth of filling.

I mixed the peaches with sugar, salt, cinnamon, and some flour. I’ve learned the hard way, if you leave out the flour (or corn starch, if that’s what you have), that filling’s never gonna get thick enough. I had a good laugh at myself as I attempted to put cinnamon into the bowl in front of the fan. Um….not a good idea. Anyway, once I got it all mixed up and into a pie shell, I baked it for about 55 minutes at 375 degrees.

While that cooled,my family had homemade vegetable soup, baked potatoes, and cheddar garlic biscuits. We were so full we had to wait just a bit. But not too long…

I was especially glad for my husband to enjoy his pie. Peach Pie is one of his favorites and, not so coincidentally, the very first pie I made on the first day of my fortyandtwentyblackbirds adventure. A lot has happened since then.

A lot of pies, a lot of people, and a lot of other stuff has filled life–crust bubbling over–with blessings and challenges and joys and struggles and laughter and tears and days and years.

I for one am grateful that each year, each month, each week–really each day, we are given a chance to reboot. I’m thankful for the chance today, and I’ll take it.

“There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

                                   –Jean-Paul Sartre