Category: Potpourri

I’m in my little room here… it’s what I’ve always called the sun-room though it’s not often sunny in here, it always feels like it ought to be. In the early morning the sun (if present) shines in a few little windows and then in the late afternoon, again, if present, the sun shines in the little window on the other side of the room. It’s a very tiny space in our home… but it’s where I see the world and where I study and dream. It’s also where I write and, through this screen, see the rest of the world. Some of my favourite books and favourite pictures surround me here in this little room… this little alcove serves as the quietest and busiest room in the house.
So, today I’m looking out at the world around me — though it’s nearly obscured by the now full and long branches of the weeping willow tree.  I cannot really tell what season it is. The tree tells me it’s not winter or early spring… but the sky… the weather… it feels like the season of gray. It’s like gray’s the prevailing season here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s gray in the fall, it’s gray in the winter and it’s gray in the spring and summer. It’s gray lots of the year… and then, it feels as if the LORD scoops up a handful of sunshine every now and then and sprays it all around and then at other times, He flings some wind our way and brightens up the sky, sweeping it with the most brilliant blues imaginable. I attempt to recreate those days in the theater of my mind on days like today. Except for the constant whirring of the computer fan, it’s quiet enough to hear the birds in the trees outside. I can almost hear the different seasons’ children playing in the yard.

I can’t tell if someone ought to be bringing in a load of firewood… I can’t tell if I ought to be stirring some soup simmering on the stove. I can’t tell if I ought to get out the corduroy clothes or if I ought to be watching the flood tables. I can’t tell if I ought to be pouring over seed catalogs or if I ought to be pruning the rose bushes. I can’t tell if I ought to be canning applesauce or sewing or knitting. For outside, the skies look like fall? or winter? or early spring? or… yep, gray. It’s still gray.

It’s gray… it’s every season, but I know it ought to be summer-season. I can almost hear children jumping and splashing in the pool. I can smell the most delicious smells in the world… a curious blend of coppertone, iced tea with lemon, bain de soleil, dr. pepper and saltwater and sand… Ah… and it’s all happening here in this little alcove! If I stay here long enough, I’ll doze off with that dream and maybe fall off my chair… ah, that dream of summer breeze.

Instead… I have a job to do. Ah, yes… it *must* be summer! I’m making raspberry jam and jelly from the raspberries being picked by the bowlful. Yes, even if it is the season of gray… it must be summer! I’ve got to step away from here… I’ve got work to do. Gotta make hay while the gray shines!

These have been unusually busy days… and though there are many things to write, many things I’ve been pondering as I’ve been working around and many events to share, these days continue to roll along and time to reflect on them here has been too limited.

Probably the most challenging and sometimes disappointing thing about busy days and many events is that each event is almost covered up or obscured by the next event, and the next, and so on.  You probably have days or seasons like this, too.  There are days, lately, where I’ve wanted to say: stop, I want to hang around this day a bit longer… but the next thing happens and another day passes over it.

We’ve sure been blessed with many wonderful experiences, many visits, lots of miles on the van and now home again preparing for our annual “backyard party for family and friends.”  This is by no means an exclusive party – in fact, it’s known that anyone’s welcome to bring their own family and friends, too.   So we’ve spent the last few days getting things ready… browsing through Kathryn’s Africa pictures, and welcoming Timothy home and hearing all about mission’s school, talks he’s heard and books he’s read and the classes he’s taken… as well as some of his upcoming plans.   And… last, but not least, we’ve been helping a couple of our children brave these hot and itchy days of chicken pox.

There’s never really a convenient time to get chicken pox… but, I must say, I think I’d rather have the children undergo this illness in the summer rather than in the winter.  As I remind them, in a week, or so, they will look back and say: now, that wasn’t so bad.  ~smile~  That’s what I tell them, anyway.  I know… easy for me to say… but, actually, experience has taught me… that this, as with many things we initially think are too difficult, is a small thing to go through in the scheme of things.

I hope to get back on track here very soon.  I’ve missed blogging… but… wow—has the “blogosphere” been buzzing.  From government things, to feminism, to patricentricity, to the passing of Dr. Raymond Moore, to lots of wonderful things sisters in the LORD are sharing on their blogs.  I’d just like to say to all of them: thank you… thank you, and blessings to you all for the wonderful ways in which you inspire me and others to press on… to stay the course and live in obedience to the Scriptures… and to be a blessing wherever you are.  All the loud things pale in comparison to the truly delightful things many are sharing.  O, the loud things grab attention and siphon life… but the sweet things keep attention and inspire living.

More in a day or so………………………….. when the garden torches are extinguished after the party.

When you see something long enough or often enough, it sort of becomes normal. And things that are not offensive or “way out there” or grotesque become sort of acceptable… not so strange. Sort of like hairstyles — you know all the different hairstyles that characterize or define different generations or time periods. I remember looking at the hairstyles of the 60’s and thinking they were so attractive…and recalled that one day I just might have that beautiful style for my wedding… I planned on the beehive—the ultimate up-do! Instead, I had a 70’s *Toni Tennille cut. When I was a little girl I so wished I could have that poofy hair and wear giant curlers. Instead… I didn’t. There was a point to this post… I just can’t remember what it was — o, yah, stand by your man.

So… today I was working along and Sam called me in to see a youtube video. He was laughing… I’m not sure exactly what was so funny to him… was it the stiffness of the singer? was it that stiff hair? was it what she was singing so stiffly? Anyway… I came in to watch — (okay, and to laugh). I thought… omygoodness, the message of *the song was a good message — but the delivery: (!).

And so, like in that video/song, Stand By Your Man, if we stiffly deliver the message, the meaning will be missed or misconstrued — thereby, actually changing it altogether. So, I’m thinking about the words of that song… stand by your man… as women, we may believe or say we believe those words are true… and we say we “stand by our man,” but if our behaviour and actions don’t line up with those words, then really, the message we say we believe really isn’t true in our lives. Messages we believe will be lived in and through us — and if we don’t really believe the message, it’ll show — probably when we least anticipate it, it will show.

*this is not an endorsement of youtube or those two songs… they’re meant for humour only… nothing more and no browsing the youtube site.

The Way I See It #225

  People don’t read enough. And what
reading we do is cursory, without absorbing
the subtleties and nuances that lie deep
within – Wow, you’ve stopped paying attention,
haven’t you? People can’t even read
a coffee cup without drifting off.”
— David Shore

You know you’ve been here…

I’ve been mulling over a passage of Scripture:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4.6

I mull over this for many reasons… for the “be careful for nothing” part —the don’t fret about anything; and the “every thing by prayer…” part —the pray about everything; and the “with thanksgiving” part — I’ve been mulling over what it really is to not worry, to pray and to pray about what I’m not worrying about and to pray about it with thanksgiving.

I have about fifty things or fifty directions I want to say or go with this matter and then I find another thought that has been swirling around in my mind… actually, thoughts — thoughts regarding the “bigger-better-more’s” of life.   If we’re honest, we’d all be able to immediately bring to mind some “bigger-better-more’s” that either plague us or cause us to feel dejected, worthless or inept.  I can’t think of anything that will bring a woman down faster than the reality of the “bigger-better-more” of someone or something else.

I’ve written a number of times about my dumb three-ingredient-cookies.  Many years ago, when our son was first married, our daughter-in-law was making a spectacular dessert at Christmastime in our kitchen.  She was in the main part of our kitchen… the production encompassed the counters, the stove and the sinks.  At one end of our kitchen we have our washer & dryer and in a pinch, they, too, become kitchen prep counters.  So I was standing there with my bowl of melted white chocolate and I was stirring in and coating Cocoa Puffs and mini-marshmallows.  I then proceeded to drop them by spoonfuls onto the parchment paper on the dryer.  All the while I was seeing the butter clarifying, the orange peel was dredged through the chocolate… just a hint of flavour… the whisks beating the dark chocolate, the mousse filling was cooling in the fridge, the dark chocolate was being shaved and curled, the mixer whipping up the eggwhites for the many layers of chocolate meringue torte….

Plop, plop, plop… spoonful after spoonful… these little treats dropped down on the paper.  All the while… I would glance up to see the beautiful work and the creation of this spectacular and delicious dessert was really simply amazing to me.   It was, for me,  another of life’s many “bigger-better-more” moments — and there really have been many.  Ironically, there’ve been so many that they really aren’t “bigger-better-more” anymore.  Instead, many what used to be to me “bigger-better-more” moments are now just met with a smile: “Of course they are.”  Or, “Of course they do… (or did or whatever).”

Someone gets a new this-or-that…  I can just smile.  No longer (hopefully/prayerfully) do I see the acquisitions or accomplishments of others as indictments against myself — and just as those things or accomplishments don’t define who they are, they also don’t define who I am not.  I am not the car I drive, the house I live in, the possessions I do or don’t own. These don’t define me — and I mustn’t let them — good or bad.  I’ve had to work at this decision to not be controlled by what others think, say or do — and especially not by the “bigger-better-more’s” of life.  I cannot compare my self or my life or my children with other’s lives or other’s children or another’s husband or whatever.  I cannot do it – not only bcz it’s a well known deep-dark spiral, but it’s also selfish and covetous — both are dangerous.

So when we’re faced with a “bigger-better-more” situation, what do we do?  Do we burn with envy? Do we stammer and make excuses for why we don’t, can’t or didn’t do, buy, make, build, etc., etc., this or that?  No… we must simply decide to acknowledge the fact as fact, rejoice with the person and admire the thing or whatever and leave it at that.  If we don’t, we’ll be consumed with envy and discontent.  And really, envy or discontent is one of the ugliest attitudes – both mentally and physically and becomes a debilitating, negative disposition.  Envy is the greatest joy stealer – it robs of today’s joy and tomorrow’s hopes and clouds everything in its wake.  What’s more, envy is opposite what God says we’re to do when we pray, when we talk to Him, when we make our requests known to Him.  Whether we seem thankful or not, God knows our hearts and really, what’s happening with others is His concern, too.  That’s just one more reason we mustn’t envy others.

And you know… most of the time, the person we think is or has “bigger-better-more” stuff really isn’t or really doesn’t have “it all together” as we assume they do.  They don’t really “have it all” like we think they do.  In fact, many times the people who seem to “have it all” or “have it all together” only have it that way on the outside — inside they may feel or be totally empty, they may feel or be very lost, alone, or aimless; inside they may be feeling a whole lot of things we’d never be able to imagine.  Worse, they may be alone without faith in the LORD.  No matter what they do or don’t have, if they don’t have Jesus, nothing else matters.  That’s why it’s so dangerous to emulate the “stars” of the world, the “fashion models” and other headliners in the news.

Things aren’t always as they seem… and as I tell my children, everything seems to have a way of settling in the end.  Things may go some way for a very long time, but in the end, things always settle.  I tell them, when their friends have this or that or can do this or that or are always so this or that: don’t fret over that, don’t murmur over that… just be you, just be the best you God created you to be – don’t worry… be happy.  Be happy for them, be happy you’re you!  Anything else is selfish and covetous.

So what happened with those dumb-three-ingredient-cookies?  Well, in addition to becoming my funny story and great equalizer, they all got eaten up right away… I made more and those disappeared, too. Her dessert was spectacular and was superb — whatever she makes is that way… and I’ve learned so very much and always look forward to whatever she’ll create next.

I’m never going to be it all or do it all or have it all… I’m never going to be thin enough or pretty enough or young-looking enough or clever enough or athletic enough or industrious enough —for what others might think, see or do — but by the grace of God, I will continue striving to be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication —with thanksgiving— I will be glad for wherever, or for whatever, He has for me.