the zoo and life

Today I was privileged to go to the zoo with Andrew, Beth, Sarah, Hannah, Chloe, Noell, Kaelyn, Korah and Cristian.
Ordinary?
Not in the least.
We were only able to go for a few hours rather than the whole day, so we had to do some major prioritizing.

Columbus Zoo has a new Polar exhibition and it was top priority.
We got to see the polar bear swim above our heads!
The Asian habitat followed.
Penguins and manatees were to be last.

On our way to the Asian area, we saw a dog in training. It's job at the zoo is to keep the timber wolf company. While visiting the trainers, they told us about a show that featured trained animals. The girls wanted to go. This was not part of the plan, but we adults reluctantly agreed. We had 15 minutes til show time so we headed up to see the lions and tigers and bears- oh my! We ran out of time and had to leave to make it to the show before we saw all of Asia!

It is amazing how different a visit is when you know time is limited.
"Side bars" can be pleasant surprises. Laughing out loud with them all at the show was amazing!
Sometimes you don't get to do everything you planned. We didn't make it to see the penguins and manatees.

I pray that I use what I know to be God's priorities as the measure for what I choose to invest in because there is no "returning" an activity and getting a refund for the time and energy spent in it. I pray that I allow myself to be pleasantly surprised by the "side bars" that pop up and that I choose to enjoy and be thankful for what I do get to experience and not focus on what I didn't.