The bar exam, hostas, robins, rats and God

I returned home from Oklahoma City tonight at about 8:15. It was a long, tough two days of bar exam taking. Yesterday was 8 full hours of essay writing and today was 6 hours of multiple choice questions. In the past I have always done OK on the essay questions, and I feel like I did reasonably well this time. I write well and essays have never been terrifying to me. However, multiple choice is a different story and I never know how I did. I discovered that the multiple choice questions seemed to have changed in some way. I think that might be a good thing for me.

Thanks to everyone who has prayed for me over the last several days. I could certainly sense your offered prayers. I have to tell you about my lunch today, then I have to go to bed.

The area around the convention center, where the bar was held, did not have very many restaurants. Bricktown is a revitalized area of OK City and all the restaurants are there and it was about a mile away. Too far to go when you have to be back in exactly one hour.

I decided for lunch today, since I had checked out of the hotel, to visit a little garden park across the street from convention center. It looked like it would have benches. So, in a zip lock bag, (it is requirement that anything you bring into the exam room has to be in a zip lock bag), I packed Starkist Tuna in one of those vacuum sealed packages, Triscuit crackers and 2 snack size Kit Kat bars and water. It was my own little picnic lunch!

On the lunch break I grabbed my bag and headed for the park. It was a perfect place. I found a bench that had red bud trees on either side that branched out and completely shaded the bench. There were Hostas everywhere. Hostas are my favorite plant and will only grow in the shade. There was an arbor covered in wisteria vines and a gurgling fountain. I opened my tuna and mixed in a little mayo and was enjoying my lunch. I looked across the path and a robin red breast was very close to me searching for insects. Then I noticed a squirrel sort of hiding in the tall grass. Then it moved a little and I noticed that the squirrel had lost all the hair off its tail. I was thinking "poor thing" then it moved out on the path and the squirrel was really a rat! A good size rat too. He moved back under the grass and watched me. I looked over my shoulder and on my side of the path and there was another rat. I called out to him to give him notice that I was aware that he was there. Notice is a good thing to give to all creatures! He and I checked each other out for a few seconds and then I continued to eat my lunch. I think rats are nocturnal animals and the smell of my delicious tuna fish was luring them out to see if a mid-day snack would be coming their way. I told them they could eat all I threw in the trash and there was plenty leftover for both of them.

It was the most peaceful, perfect lunch. I felt God's presence there. Serenity and peace are strangers to bar exam takers. I have never been this relaxed for an exam. I did not take a camera with me, but I have captured every detail of the beautiful park in my memory.

If you are ever in Oklahoma City, check out the Myriad Gardens on the corner of N. Robinson and Sheridan Avenue. If you sit on the bench in the shade of the red bud trees, God will speak to you in the beauty of garden and the wonder of the creatures.

Thanks again for your prayers. Good night!