Brooks babble...Rivers run deep.

Who you callin a brook! Guilty as charged. I am a babbler. I've always been one to be chatty Cathy, especially when I'm in awkward situations. Man can I ever talk about nothing like it's something. Kendra gets keyed up when she knows I'm going to be in a potentially awkward situation because she will say, "don't start babbling. Just sit there and hold my hand." Truth is that I don't even know I'm babbling until I look into her eyes and see that, you are babbling. Probably the most famous babble episode, among the throng of countless babbling episodes, was when we tried to set up our friend Lealon with a girl. She was a sweet girl who was looking for a good man, and Lealon was a decent guy with a desire to find a good girl. Well Kendra and I tried to play matchmaker.

The horrible event went down first at my condo. Lealon and I lived next door to one another. The girl, for the life of me I can't even remember her name--probably didn't give her a chance to say her name, let's call her...Cathy! Cathy met us at my place and we were all going to go to a nice dinner and just enjoy each other company. There were two great Italian restaurants in Oklahoma City, Tommy's and Bellini's (sister restaurants), Tommy's was closest to our place so we decided to go there. I loved their four cheese linguine but usually got their chicken Marsala which was just the most wonderful and delightful dish ever created. I conned one waiter into giving me the secret once (cost me double tip) and now can make their chicken Marsala at home. Soo good.

The ambiance of both places was very subdued. Dimly lit with ambient light, cloth covered tables, cloth napkins, wine glasses used as water glasses, wait staff in stiffly starched aprons with crisp whit shirts and ties. It does kind of bother me that a female waitress wears a man's shirt and tie because they can dress appropriate to their gender and not look all goofy in a shirt and tie. I digress. The atmosphere was very relaxing and causal, just the perfect place for love to ignite it's spark in two souls. Unless their mouthy, awkward, scared that no one will talk and ruin the whole evening friend is at the table.

I started talking about nothing, then decided to elaborate on nothing a little more until I was in a full on out of conscious rambling random buffoon. I can't really recall what I talked about because I talked about everything. I'm sure I went into a rant about how people were dressed, how each of them were dressed and why they decided to dress that way, do they shop for clothes on sale..blah blah blah. I do remember seeing Kendra, Lealon, and Cathy just staring at me like I was coming down off of some hallucinogenic drug, or the mushrooms in my Marsala had been the kind you DON'T eat. The date didn't go very well at all and love found a more quiet, less spasmodic table to woo and work it's magic upon.

Babbling on an on is for sure a problem. Babblers are not very considerate of their peers, we who babble just go into to rant because we feel insecure in our surrounding and feel that this verbal abuse of air space builds a wall that won't allow people into your most protected spaces. I've spent a good many years trying not to be a babbler, I'm a recovering babblholic. There are times when it just happens, but now I try to take the course of my much older, steady, certain, cousin the river. I try to listen and observe (I'm the world's best observer) and not say much. I try to answer question directly and immediately with out commentary. If there is a way to answer the question with a simple, "yes" or, "no" then that is what they get. I know that deep down in my heart I'm a brook prone to babbling and holding the ears of my peers captive.

One of my friends and for sure the one man who has had the most profound affect on me as a professional is Darrel Rickard. He was the minister of the first church I "officially" worked for and taught me so much about how to minister to people. I've been working on a post dedicated to him since I started this blog and hope it is able to come out some day, with such deep and connected feelings it's hard to pen the words in such a way that you present the picture you want. Who knows that day may be here before you know it. One of his sayings was, brooks babble...rivers run deep. The first time I heard it I knew that I would never forget that phrase and would use it forever, just like whiffenpoof! Love that word. Darrel grew up with grandparents who had deep Indian heritages and they shared some of those feelings with him of which was not talking just to talk..babble!

I have this other curse which is being an gatherer of random and useless information on varied and sundry subjects. I'm no expert on any one subject but know a little about a lot of things. Being a storehouse of random and useless information means I can usually talk about things with come certainty of sanity. I trick a lot of folks! Mildred and I share this randomness. We can talk about nothing for hours and hours upon end. It's actually pretty exciting when we can talk about things that need to be discussed.

This is my last paragraph so I'll apologize for snaring you with this random babbling post--Gotcha! Please don't' hate me because babble, most folks who know me don't really care that I babble and find it somewhat comforting that I do what I do. Maybe in some vicarious sort of way I put them at ease with my babbling because they know they will be off the hook to input. That is unless they have the babbling brook syndrome too.