Monday, February 28, 2011

Invitation





She taps at my window and I, a weary mother, stand at at the kitchen sink.
"Come." She says. "Come into life, come to the Spring, the earth renewed, refreshed, poured out."
I place soiled dishcloth in sink and run to rebirth in dawning glory.









Will's friend pulls in the driveway, and I feel like a crazed woman- barefoot, camera in hand, wildness all giddy and delighting. I wave timidly to the young man in the car. He just smiles. Does he know?

I said "Yes" to first blush's whisper, an invitation to come out and play and wake up with the world.




Little people stay nestled in dreams and warmth when the light dances on their walls.
And I slip out the door and take beauty by the hand.
I walk with her through meadows and over  hills, serenaded by Meadow Lark and Killdeer song.
Are they asking for Spring?





And I thought, as I held beauty's hand and reveled in her majesty,

Isn't all of life an invitation? If life is living in the present moment, and the joy is in living now, then life's sweetest juice, the extracting of life, is being open to the invitation of living.

What am I being invited to do at this very moment? Smile at a child or stranger? Say a kind word to a discouraged person? Pray for a troubled friend? Create peace in some seemingly small way?

I must ask throughout the day, "Lord, What is the invitation of this moment? What can I say 'Yes" to that will glorify you and make you known to others right now?"

What is the Invitation?
Say..."Yes!"




"Meanwhile there is the multitude not gifted for great things- the one- talented or two- talented people, who think they can be of little use in this world...but the truth is, no life's endowment is too small to become a real blessing in this world. Even the smallest candle or taper will shed a little brightness, if lighted and set where it can shine."
~ JR Miller






I walk the same hills, day after day, moment by moment, and there are reminders. This body I am in will pass, and my very being will settle once again to earth womb. I am mineral and bone that decays, but "Yes!" does not decay. "Yes!" does not die.















I travel home over rivulets of scooped earth with firm resolve: Today I will look for the invitation and accept. Accept. I will seek opportunities to say "yes" to others, to God.

As I write this post,  rain flows out of a laden sky. The splendor of the morning has given way to undulating grey.

The invitation isn't forever. Don't let it pass you by.











Friday, February 25, 2011

Where It All Starts


 Does she look for patches of  blue in that weeping gray?

Raindrops soak the earth, pouring out the world's unrest on a stark land. And she stands there just gazing , mesmerized by droplets of water that ripple and clasp, coil and slip on smudged window panes.








Only moments earlier I had been pinned by swirling blue- the craziness of it all- rain battering my temple and swelling in puddles, light leaping and luminous, all at once.


The perpetual admonition of nature to us is, “The world is new, untried. Do not believe the past. I give you the universe new and unhandled every hour."  ~Emerson









Life- so unpredictable, so mixed-up. I web my existence in a cocoon, spinning out days of making a home, tending souls, talking of cooking and weight loss and bringing up babies. Such a cozy place it is, a nestled in kind of living that insulates.

But I know there is a reality beyond the cocoon-  the ugliness of fighting and angry souls.  There are ills that cry out in anguish that only God can heal.







 
And tomorrow...tomorrow a loving husband and father emerges from our cocoon to root out the evil that lies thick in this world. I don't know where he is going, and he spends his last night home playing chess with his teenage son. I don't know when we will hear from him or what he will say or what he will have to do when he is gone. He leaves to provide for us, to keep us safe in our cocoon, waiting for his return.

Like the weather, I am confusion. There is peace. Gratitude. Love. Understanding. But there is also a hollowed out ache that plunges deep. This unknowing, this unrest-  but then...and this is the reality...

Do We ever know? Do we ever know what will happen in life? Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing. Not even my next breath.





Rain pounds and sun illuminates on this crazy, mixed-up day, and strangely it quells the surging of my heart- because all life is bitter sweet, and bittersweet is beautiful.

God manifests his grandeur in the glory of raging skies that light and dim in perfect harmony, and It IS all good.




Years ago, a friend of mine prayed the following Bible verse for me, and it was life changing. I have memorized the verse, and I repeat it to myself often:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7)



I pray for peace every day- peace in the world, peace in my family, peace in my heart. That's where it all has to start.  In our own hearts.








Thursday, February 24, 2011

What It Really Means To Be Free



I was tempted to start another blog yesterday, but I didn't give in to the urge. I've gone that route before, and it's too hard to try and compartmentalize my life, when what is on this blog should represent a whole, all of me. Lately I have been "foraging" for greens and such to accompany our meals. I thought I would start a blog about forage finds, but then I decided that I would just make a foraging label on this blog!

Anyhow, I went out to the stubble of last year's garden and was pleasantly surprised to find some Arugula poking up through the brush. There wasn't much, but enough to make a small salad....in February, no less!





Earlier I had ground some wheat kernels to make our daily bread, and I had the venison from Autumn's hunt, thawing in a bowl. I was inspired to take a picture of this bountiful trio. I find there is so much beauty, so much art in the daily living of life.




A little later I was making tea from the mint gathered in Summer's ebb. How generous is a God that lavishes us with herbs and spices to perfume our days.







Isn't that what life needs to be? We need to find the green in winter's bleak, know the mirth of starkness and vulnerability.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was reading  Lysa TerKeurst's book, Made To Crave. One of the Bible verses Lysa mentions throughout the book is this:

 " 'Everything is permissible for me' "--but not everything is beneficial. " 'Everything is permissible for me' "--but I will not be mastered by anything. (1Corinthians 6:12)


I have thought a lot about that verse lately, and I experienced the weight, the empowerment, the freedom of it - this morning. I was preparing pancakes for the children, and I was just dying to have one. OK, two..maybe three? Small ones? I thought- "I'll just have them without the syrup...it's fine. They're so warm and fluffy- and cooked in bacon grease to boot."

Now I like pancakes, but I don't die for them; I mean they're good, but they're not GOOD! But isn't it funny how the moment we feel deprived of something, we long for it- pine for it!?



I found this in our computer's photo library...fits the post, huh? Emily took it one day when she and mary Margaret were having a "photo shoot."

 I wanted those pancakes in the worst way! I have been praying for God to help me make better food choices, and in the midst of pancakes and syrup I had a grace moment. I thought of the verse mentioned above, and it suddenly dawned on me :  I am not being deprived of these pancakes. I am making the choice to forgo pancakes and make a healthier breakfast choice to benefit and sustain my body until the next meal.

Making choices is not about deprivation. Making choices is empowerment. God has given us free will to make decisions that will fortify and edify our souls.

Can a simple act of choosing whether or not to have pancakes for breakfast be a spiritual decision? As Lysa explains so eloquently in her book...YES!!!

Every moment is made of choices, Every hour is made of moments, Every day is made of hours, every year is made of days, every life is made of years.....Every lifetime is built upon the choices we make, moment to moment.

I have wondered " How in the world did these pounds creep up on me the last ten years?" Creep is the right word. Think about it: If you only gained three pounds a year, ten years later you would be thirty pounds heavier. Three pounds a year averages out to only be 1/4 pound a month, but ten years later you're thirty pounds heavier. This scares me! But what it tells me is that gaining weight doesn't happen all at once; it's an accumulation of moment to moment poor choices and bad habits over a long period of time. Conversely, losing weight will be a matter of making good choices over and over, moment to moment- for a long period of time, for a lifetime!


Sam's Leggo creation

Jean- Pierre De Caussade, in his book, Abandonment To Divine Providence, writes:

"Take away from the senses what they worship and they will weep like deserted children, but faith must triumph, for nothing can destroy the will of God. When the senses are really attacked, starved and stripped they collapse, and faith becomes stronger and more alive than ever." (p41)

Isn't that so true? Our senses, our cravings, plead sometimes to be satisfied. It may be wanting to buy something, or physical lust, or unsatiated appetites for food. Even more serious addicitons: alcohol, drugs, pornography-  all have the same root. All these temptations and addictions are attractive to us because they promise to fill a longing deep within our souls. The sadness, the irony, is that none will.

The only way to satisfy our souls is to drink from the living well, to satiate with God.

Caussade writes:

"Neither reason nor the senses are ever satisfied, for they never see the sufficiency of grace. To hallow the name of God is, according to the scriptures, to recognize his holiness and to love and adore it in all things which proceed like words from the mouth of God. For what God creates each moment is a divine thought which is expressed by a thing, and so all these things are so many names and words through which He makes known His wishes." (p.51)




It's not that choosing whether or not to eat pancakes determines a person's spirituality. But if God cares about our lives (which He does!), and our lives are made up of moments, and moments are made up of choices, then God must care about the smallest choices, the most seemingly inconsequential decisions we make every moment!

We could be overwhelmed by the weight of having to make good choices all the time- but that would be missing the point. The beauty of having small count, is that every moment is anew. Every poor choice is passing, and there is a good choice right now, in the present moment. Every moment you are given the freedom to choose God.

Freedom.

One of our priests was speaking about freedom (in his wonderful Scottish accent), and he gave us a life illustration to explain how God's commands, His boundaries actually give us freedom. He said:

There were two men going to a football game in different cars. Neither of the men knew the way to the stadium. One of the men was given directions on how to get to the stadium. The other man was given no directions to the stadium, but he could drive around wherever he wanted.. Which of the men was more free to choose whether or not to go to the game?

Obviously, the man who knew the way was more free to choose whether or not he would go. In the same way, God's boundaries, His will for us enables us to have unsurpassed freedom and joy in our lives.





God's will for us is to live in freedom:
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galations 5:1)

 
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Corinthains 3:17)
 
 
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)
 

"In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. "
(Ephesians 3:12)

My prayer for you today, my prayer for all of us, is that through the difficult choices we must make each moment we sense God's abundant grace leading us to freedom and life in Christ.

"Our only satisfaction must be to live in the present moment as if there were nothing to expect beyond it."
(Jean-Pierre De Caussade)




Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Before...After. What Do You Think?








Emily and I have been fooling around with photoshop.... Seriously, What do you think?

Bits n' Pieces



Bits n' Pieces:

collage making
dressing up
sewing
puppy care
new baby
baseball tryouts
photo shoots
Bach on piano
zumba
smoothies
walks
drawing
coloring books
homemade baby gifts


*A special thanks to my dear friend, Lissa, for her unbeatable kids' book reviews. We heard about Shark vs. Train on her blog. She has a knack for finding the books kids love! It's no wonder all her kids are amazing readers!

Finally, did I mention how happy your comments make me? Thanks for taking the time to drop a line. And don't forget to leave a link to your blog or website, over in the kindred spirits section in the sidebar! Just click on the green link and eneter your URL. Have a wonderful day!