"Easy as Pie"

(Local View from 4'2, Lake County Press, March 14, 2025)

Happy Pi Day Friday!

Pi is the symbol to show the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. For years, I have heard robotics students showing off their memory skills trying to see who can memorize the longest version of 3.14159265… And on this day we hear many comments about people eating pie to celebrate this mathematical day.

A common saying is, “easy as pie.” Anyone who has baked fruit pies, tossed a pizza pie or painstakingly made homemade meat pies know that this saying is full of sarcasm. Pie crusts are not easy to make, at least not for your first fifty tries. Baking is a science and rolling out pie crusts can also be tricky. Not enough molding of it can make it flaky and fall apart while too much touching or working of it can make it tough and not appealing. It takes trial and error to make the recipe just right, to roll it out into perfect circles just right, and then to fill it just the right amount. So many details.

Our lives are full of so many details too. Recently we have discussed the need for true rest and for margin. This past weekend I was getting ready for my weekly shots that help my arthritis and other medical needs only to find that I never went to the pharmacy to pick up my needed syringes. I had my meds and the needles but nothing to hold this life providing medication in between. After a few moments of beating myself up for not being more alert to my priorities and seeing first hand how overly scheduled I have become, I jumped into action on my phone. Surely someone in our town would have a syringe I could use so I wouldn’t have to miss a week of my medications again. Because yes, I made this discovery eight minutes after the pharmacy had closed for the weekend.

After thinking through the medications of my immediate family and friends, I realized all of their shots were in the new predosed pen type dispensers. I made four calls and even had to look up a local friend's landline online because I haven’t had a phone book in over a decade. I was able to drive to this friend’s house and get my much needed syringe and continue on my weekend of feeling yucky with a side of deep brain fog so I can be more present this week ahead.

I giggled to myself when I looked at the older box that housed this highly sought after syringe.  It had an old school price tag on it which was reminiscent of the tags that the pharmacy on First Avenue used in my childhood. Oh how times have changed since then. I am beyond grateful for this friend who gave from their abundance and for all the people I connected with that helped lead me to this giving friend.

I share this story because there are so many life lessons wrapped into this hour of life on a random day in my overscheduled world. I am grateful to live in the community of my childhood and have many people know who I am. I am grateful for family friends and musician friends who go back decades. I am grateful that locals share their medical journeys because we need each other in a host of ways and only in deep, safe relationships can we share our deepest or most basic needs. I am grateful that one person’s abundance can be a blessing to someone else’s need. I am grateful that others have my back while I learn to find rest and balance in these uncertain times of life. And all of these statements of gratitude can be summed up to say: we need each other.

When life gets as “easy as pie”, remember to reach out so others can help and be a blessing.