The other night, after hours of tv, I had just read a little and prayed a little, turned out my lights and snuggled in for the night.
Lying still, anticipating sleep, I was dive bombed by a mosquito! It's little drone approaching my ear canal at top speed and pulling up just short of a crash landing, I'm certain. I flail about whacking myself, my pillow, and my blankets frantically, hoping that I'll get lucky and knock the enemy from the sky.
Then, of course, lying still...
Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away.
After all, mosquito bites aren't that bad.
The drone starts again.
I try to ignore it, be still, ignore it, be still, ignore it, it's getting close; I flail.
The droning has stopped.
Maybe I got it?
Did I get it?
Is that it?
Can I hear it?
Lie still, concentrate; can I hear it?
This is the most still I have been all day.
Is this the kind of still that I am supposed to be when I'm being still and knowing that God is God?
GAH! I hear it again!
I tear off the covers, stomp (unsuccessfully because of the carpet of clothing on my floor) to the light, flick it on. Search the skies (my ceiling) with an intensely hostile glare for my nemesis. Locate him high in a corner, follow his flight with unrelenting focus, and kill him with no regrets whatsoever.
Ok, not so biblical, but really, how often am I still? Really still? And listening for my God as intensely as I listened for that mosquito?
Ps 46:10
Wednesday 24 August 2011
Tuesday 23 August 2011
blessings from the raspberry bush
Raspberry picking is my new favorite sport, as it provides ample time for introspection and excellent fruits for my labour. Sure you come out of it a little scratched, a little stained, but the rewards are well worth the effort.
So, not long ago, there I was, all ready to pick some berries. Wearing the proper gear; a bucket attached to a belt around my waist for hands free picking, and of course a cowboy hat to shield my head from the sun, I enter "the zone", and focus on my objective - berries.
Picture, if you can, a beautiful blue skied, sun filled afternoon, with just enough breeze to ruffle your hair and make the temperature comfortable. There, just ahead, stands this beautiful green bush laden with perfect award winning just ripe for the picking red gems. Gorgeous juicy pre smoothie material, and cereal topping beauties, and raspberry pie filling not from a can... it's almost enough to make me lose my focus, a bounty so plentiful!
Now what you should know about raspberry picking is that; if you only pick from one angle you miss out on a lot. So if you're standing there, looking down and becoming frustrated because you know from standing at a distance that there are more berries, take a deep breath and remember, those berries aren't going to come to you. I move in slowly, stealthily, and it begins.
Raspberry picking is actually a lovely metaphor for life when you think about it. Once you're standing in the midst of the bush, you only see the most obvious blessings, you somehow forget that there are many more blessings that you must look for to find. While some take some getting to, some only require the lifting of a few leaves, or changing your perspective.
When frustrated by the little you have compared to what you know is around you (still while picking the berries) it is our tendency to rush down the line to where the berries are easier to get to, larger, juicier, definitely better...
Instead of searching earnestly where you are at and taking advantage of what is before you.
It may come as a shock or a disappointment to realize that the berries are different, but not necessarily bigger, nor better, nor more and surprisingly still require as much work. The added insult is the sad fact that since you have rushed, you've missed out on what was there where you were, and suddenly you're a little more scratched and stained than previously.
It is a lesson better learned in the raspberry bush that life's blessings, are for the moment you're currently in, do require some effort but are worthy of being enjoyed while you're there. And so, my juicy delicious red muse leads me here... to where I am thankful to the God who "gives rain in its' season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. "(Lev 26:4)
So, not long ago, there I was, all ready to pick some berries. Wearing the proper gear; a bucket attached to a belt around my waist for hands free picking, and of course a cowboy hat to shield my head from the sun, I enter "the zone", and focus on my objective - berries.
Picture, if you can, a beautiful blue skied, sun filled afternoon, with just enough breeze to ruffle your hair and make the temperature comfortable. There, just ahead, stands this beautiful green bush laden with perfect award winning just ripe for the picking red gems. Gorgeous juicy pre smoothie material, and cereal topping beauties, and raspberry pie filling not from a can... it's almost enough to make me lose my focus, a bounty so plentiful!
Now what you should know about raspberry picking is that; if you only pick from one angle you miss out on a lot. So if you're standing there, looking down and becoming frustrated because you know from standing at a distance that there are more berries, take a deep breath and remember, those berries aren't going to come to you. I move in slowly, stealthily, and it begins.
Raspberry picking is actually a lovely metaphor for life when you think about it. Once you're standing in the midst of the bush, you only see the most obvious blessings, you somehow forget that there are many more blessings that you must look for to find. While some take some getting to, some only require the lifting of a few leaves, or changing your perspective.
When frustrated by the little you have compared to what you know is around you (still while picking the berries) it is our tendency to rush down the line to where the berries are easier to get to, larger, juicier, definitely better...
Instead of searching earnestly where you are at and taking advantage of what is before you.
It may come as a shock or a disappointment to realize that the berries are different, but not necessarily bigger, nor better, nor more and surprisingly still require as much work. The added insult is the sad fact that since you have rushed, you've missed out on what was there where you were, and suddenly you're a little more scratched and stained than previously.
It is a lesson better learned in the raspberry bush that life's blessings, are for the moment you're currently in, do require some effort but are worthy of being enjoyed while you're there. And so, my juicy delicious red muse leads me here... to where I am thankful to the God who "gives rain in its' season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. "(Lev 26:4)
Saturday 20 August 2011
my world is a tilting place
In a not so distant past, I was fairly happily situated in a small town; until I decided it was time to move along. It doesn't take long for the world to shift. And things are much less stable than you might imagine...
So here I am, six weeks from the end of my job, the end of living in this lovely little basement apartment, the end of the routine that I so painstakingly constructed. Nothing has changed yet, but everything seems dearer, lovelier, and I am appreciating more the things I hardly noticed before, because I must leave them. Impending endings have a way of forcing us to see the good in what we have, because we know neither the good nor the bad of what will come next. Life is certainly an adventure.
Recently on an adventure, a friend and I found ourselves at Discovery Wildlife Park, where there are bears that have acted in movies and shows and commercials. They did their tricks for us and if we wanted we could have had our pictures taken with them. They also had big cats however, the lion enclosure was empty. I don't know where the lions were. Hopefully on a safari adventure of their own.
Once while staying with a couple, my friend (the wife) had been having a ridiculously bad day, and her husband (also my friend) turned from the tv and mocking something he had just seen said "Did you know they operate on lions?" It made her laugh, it made us both laugh. And was one of those sweet moments that somehow, though fairly inconsequential, did not get lost or forgotten in memory but remains a way to lighten the mood of gray days between us three.
So while the world tilts, as it must through its axis, I am holding to the sweet moments and sharing them with you.
So here I am, six weeks from the end of my job, the end of living in this lovely little basement apartment, the end of the routine that I so painstakingly constructed. Nothing has changed yet, but everything seems dearer, lovelier, and I am appreciating more the things I hardly noticed before, because I must leave them. Impending endings have a way of forcing us to see the good in what we have, because we know neither the good nor the bad of what will come next. Life is certainly an adventure.
Recently on an adventure, a friend and I found ourselves at Discovery Wildlife Park, where there are bears that have acted in movies and shows and commercials. They did their tricks for us and if we wanted we could have had our pictures taken with them. They also had big cats however, the lion enclosure was empty. I don't know where the lions were. Hopefully on a safari adventure of their own.
Once while staying with a couple, my friend (the wife) had been having a ridiculously bad day, and her husband (also my friend) turned from the tv and mocking something he had just seen said "Did you know they operate on lions?" It made her laugh, it made us both laugh. And was one of those sweet moments that somehow, though fairly inconsequential, did not get lost or forgotten in memory but remains a way to lighten the mood of gray days between us three.
So while the world tilts, as it must through its axis, I am holding to the sweet moments and sharing them with you.
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