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The Grace of a Blank Slate

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #dountoothers, #goldenrule, #thegraceofablankslate, Respect on August 24, 2017| 2 Comments »

matthew

There is a trend in our society, that has been making me wonder lately.

The trend is all of the respect yourself advice. Let me give you a couple of examples:

“respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy”

“respect yourself enough to say “I deserve peace” and walk away from people or things that prevent you from attaining it”

Basically, the messages tend to be (my words) “if I am not getting what I want from you, I will erase you from my life”

Every time I read one of these (faux) pearls of wisdom, my mind goes to situations, seasons and people who stuck with me when I was that person.

that person who was selfish

that person who treated another poorly

that person who didn’t make the effort to call, email or contact

that person who took more than they gave

that person who should have been walked away from

You see, we are all that person at times. We all have seasons of selfishness, distraction, ignorance, and pride. We all have been mean, unthinking and unappreciative.

I am not saying we should be a doormat or allow ourselves to be abused … no way. What I am saying is that, maybe, the loudest message today is we deserve only good from others.

The further I go in my life, the more I look back at the ways my grandparents did life.

I remember times when a certain neighbour, fellow church member or relative would do or say something disrespectful to my grandmother. She would shake her head … and move on with her day. The next time she would see them, she approached them with the grace of a blank slate … and usually that was the end of the situation.

You see she respected herself enough to not dwell on those incidents. She also understood the wisdom of the ages, the golden rule of life, that you treat others as you would like them to treat you.

And, at least in my life, I am so thankful for those who treated me with such grace as to treat me as they would desire for me to treat them.

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Transform, Build and Impact Lives

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #bucketlist, #igotto, #summercamp, #transformbuildimpact on August 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

For years I have dreamed of knocking this one thing off my bucket list, and I finally did it!

Our son has attended a summer camp as a camper, on work crew, as a LIT (leader-in-training) and staff for every year since he was seven. This summer was year ten, and, quite possibly, his last.

For the past few years I have dreamed of volunteering there, as a means of meeting all the people he has talked about, getting photos and giving back to this place as a gift for all they have done for him.

My energy was higher than it had been in the past few years, so this was to be the year.

The area they needed assistance was in the kitchen, so that is where I got to spend my time.

The camp kitchen is managed by a knowledgable, experienced, hard-working cook who runs the food prep with military precision. She works long hours, many days and does so while adoring (and being adored by) the youth who are part of camp.

It felt good to be able to do a task which allowed you to see it through to completion. But, I gotta tell you, it is hard, tiring work!

I got to go to watch the most beautiful mornings and evenings at the the edge of the lake, where the pesky geese would arrive, numerous times each day (to eat the treats dropped on the ground then pooh all over the grass). The lake was often still at these beginnings and endings, but ever so alive with activity during the daytime, as campers and neighbours were boating, swimming and various other water activities.

I got to attend a campfire time in the chapel in the woods, sparsely

decorated with benches, strings of Christmas lights, and staggered wood planks framing the ‘stage’. The guest speakers communicating the love and acceptance of Christ in their words and in how they interacted with everyone there, all the while also caring for and communicating love and acceptance to their two young children.

I got to meet and chat with Muffin, Itchy, Nacho, Ginger and so many others by the camp names I had heard year after year. I got to speak thanks to the camp director, program director and their wives, who have led, instructed and cared for our son. I also got to meet Fred and Elmer (and Skippy), who our son had spent two years doing work crew with, learning about work ethic, being real and doing it all for Christ.

I got to volunteer alongside of other volunteers, who just wanted to give back to the camp that they had attended, or just wanted to give their time to.

“Kawkawa’s mission is
to transform, build, and impact lives
in God’ creation
by living in community, offering programs and services
and teaching and modeling Christ
through our camp staff and facilities.”

And that IS what they do. Perfectly? No. With great love? Definitely!

BLKP4376

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Holidays=Holy Days

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #holiday, #holidays=holydays, #livelifetothebrim, #takeabreak, Vacation on August 17, 2017| 1 Comment »

holiday

Having just returned from a week of holiday-ing on the west coast of Oregon, I am still living in the residual joy of that time away from the day-to-day responsibilities.

Getting away is amazing. Away from work, and the phone, and making dinner, and doing laundry, and all the rest of the same old, same old.

Then we return home, after time away, and revel in that very same, same old. We return and have refreshed thoughts about our jobs, try new recipes, make our suitcase-smelling clothes fresh and clean and reach for the phone to re-connect with our families and friends.

According to the definition (above) a holiday is a holy day, a day when work is suspended to celebrate an event … you know, an event, like Monday, or August, or Christmas, or … (you fill in the blank).

Though an extended time away from work is a great blessing, a holiday can be any day that we bring a holiday mindset into its beginning and sprinkle it through to evening.

As I prepare my mind for the beginning of a new sc—l year (I am simply not ready to say the word yet 😉 ), I am thinking that I need to incorporate the idea of holiday into every week.

I need to spend my lunch break, at work, going for a walk, or chatting with a co-worker about anything but work.

I need to include a dinner each week in candlelight.

I need to spend the end of my day reading a fiction novel (no self-help, DIY or factual reading).

I need to walk on a beach … any beach, at least once a month (even in the rain … I love it on vacation, so why not on a Saturday afternoon in November?).

I need to make plans with those people who we always say, “we should get together sometime,” and never do. Holidays are perfect for those sometimes.

I need to laugh, from the belly.

I need to dream.

I need to reflect.

I need to plan and look forward to the next vacation holiday, be it a weekend or a longer time away.

What do you need to do, in order to attain more holidays throughout your year?

“The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows;—
The happy days unclouded to their close;
The sudden joys that out of darkness start
As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart
Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are;—a fairy tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Sunrise Sunset

Posted in life, Nature/Creation, WONDER, tagged #creationstory, #lightcameafterthedark, #sunrisesunset on August 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

FullSizeRender 2 Another summer day, another sunset.

It is guaranteed that every day the sun will rise and the sun will set. Though some days we cannot see the occurrences each day, they have been happening since the Creator first said, “Let there be light” (and there was, evening and morning).

There was evening … then there was morning …

Evening first, because before morning light “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). So it was that evening was followed by morning.

And “God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4). The light is good, and after prolonged times of darkness it is life-giving to once again see the light. Somehow, when we have been deprived of the light, it is so much sweeter than before.

“God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night” (Genesis 1:5a). They were given names, as all of creation has been named. It is as though with their naming they were included in the living creatures whose breath was breathed into into them by the God of all creation.

Then the story of evening and morning, darkness and light is identified with it’s place in the timeline of life, “and there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (Genesis 1:5b). This was day one, which was started in utter darkness and ended with light.

All of our days end with the darkness that follows a sunset, sometimes it is not just the sky but also within us that contains shadows. But each sunset is followed by the light of the sun, rising in the dawn.

“Sunrise sunset, sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days,
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as they gaze…”
Fiddler on the Roof

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#homeisthebestplacetobe

Posted in life, The Hubby, WONDER, tagged #cominghome, #homeisthebestplacetobe, #vacationisover, Vacation on August 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

home

A week of the sweet life (aka #vacationfortwo, #justus2, #justhubbyandme, #vacayfor2, #heandme, #roadtrip) has come to an end for hubby and I.

We travelled over one thousand five hundred kilometres, ate far to much of everything one shouldn’t, walked on sandy shorelines, stared in awe as the waves kept coming toward us, took dozens of pictures, spent precious hours with sweet people, went to sleep to the sound of pounding surf, and awoke to the noisy seagulls enjoying their morning feed on the beach.

It was all so good.

And now we are home.

We returned home to the adoration of the Wonderdog, and catching up with a daughter. We crawled into our own bed last night, delighted at the familiarity of our bed. Awoke this morning eager for the that first cup of brewed goodness, in our favourite chairs, with the Wonderdog stretched out on the floor between us.

Laundry in process, familiar, fresh air coming in the windows, life is good.

Vacation is delight, but coming home to who and what we love is the icing on the cake.

My Home

This is the place that I love the best,
A little brown house, like a ground-bird’s nest,
Hid among grasses, and vines, and trees,
Summer retreat of the birds and bees.

The tenderest light that ever was seen
Sifts through the vine-made window screen–
Sifts and quivers, and flits and falls
On home-made carpets and gray-hung walls.

All through June the west wind free
The breath of clover brings to me.
All through the languid July day
I catch the scent of new-mown hay.

The morning-glories and scarlet vine
Over the doorway twist and twine;
And every day, when the house is still,
The humming-bird comes to the window-sill.

In the cunningest chamber under the sun
I sink to sleep when the day is done;
And am waked at morn, in my snow-white bed,
By a singing bird on the roof o’erhead.

Better than treasures brought from Rome,
Are the living pictures I see at home–
My aged father, with frosted hair,
And mother’s face, like a painting rare.

Far from the city’s dust and heat,
I get but sounds and odors sweet.
Who can wonder I love to stay,
Week after week, here hidden away,
In this sly nook that I love the best–
This little brown house like a ground-bird’s nest?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Sweet Sacrament

Posted in GOD, life, Nature/Creation, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #communion, #forthebeautyoftheearth, #sweetsacrament, #unitedwithbeauty on August 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

beaut7

CS Lewis has said, “We do not want merely to see beauty… we want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”

beaut3

Though I have the benefit of living in a place of great visual beauty, it is when I am on vacation, travelling, that I have opportunity to not only see the beauty around me, but also to breath it into my lungs, into my very soul … so that what I see pierces into who I am, providing an experience of oneness, like communion.

beaut2 These experiences are deeply spiritual, deeply personal and immensely rejuvenating, reminding me who I am, what I am part of and to whom I belong.

beaut6

As hubby and I traverse this week, I participated in such a holy service, in the cathedrals made of rock, wood, sand and water. I partook of the elements offered to me, ““in remembrance of him.” (1 Corinthians 11:24a, 25a).

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you … For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23a, 26)

I find, in these wide-opened, sacred spaces, that I feel the words of hymns or spiritual songs whose words were inspired by similar services of communion. It is such sweet sacrament.

In this case, it was the hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, written by Folliott S. Pierpoint, sometime before 1864

For the beauty of the earth,

For the beauty of the skies,

For the Love which from our birth

Over and around us lies:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For the beauty of each hour

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flower,

Sun and moon and stars of light:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,

For the heart and brain’s delight,

For the mystic harmony

Linking sense to sound and sight:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth, and friends above;

For all gentle thoughts and mild:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For each perfect Gift of Thine

To our race so freely given,

Graces human and Divine,

Flowers of earth, and buds of Heaven:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For Thy Bride that evermore

Lifteth holy hands above,

Offering up on every shore

This Pure Sacrifice of Love:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For Thy Martyrs’ crown of light,

For Thy Prophets’ eagle eye,

For Thy bold Confessors’ might,

For the lips of Infancy:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This our Sacrifice of Praise.

For Thy Virgins’ robes of snow,

For Thy Maiden Mother mild,

For Thyself, with hearts aglow,

Jesu, Victim undefiled,

Offer we at Thine own Shrine

Thyself, sweet Sacrament Divine.

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Drawn to the Light

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #drawntothelight, #thislittlelightofmine, Light on August 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Screen Shot 2017-08-07 at 9.45.22 PM

Although we were driving, although the windshield was really dirty, although I am no photographer … I just had to get a shot of the sun in the distance.

Even with the vast array of filters at my hand (literally) it still does not do justice for what my eyes saw.

There is something about sunrises, and sunsets, and rays of light that regularly makes me pull out my phone to try to get the image recorded forever.

According to Maclaren’s Expositions, “in all languages, light is the natural symbol for three things: knowledge, joy, purity. To ‘walk in the light’ then, is, speaking generally, to have purity, righteousness, goodness, as the very element and atmosphere in which our progressive and changeful life is carried on.

1 John 1:5 tells us:

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all”

If light is the symbol for knowledge, joy and purity, we could then extrapolate that God, being light, is the very source of knowledge, joy and purity.

Kinda makes our magnetism for light make sense. It draws us to it, as Christ draws us to him, and through him we experience true knowledge, joy and purity.

Even our Wonder dog is drawn to the light.

Screen Shot 2017-08-07 at 9.42.32 PM

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Change, in Faith

Posted in GOD, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #achangeinfaith, #blindfaith, #changeishard, #faithis on August 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

move

I love change … change scares me.

The conundrum of life!

This summer I have been, mentally, adjusting to impending change. I feel as though I have gone from excitement to fear, to sorrow, to doubt and back to excitement again … often all in the same day!

Though the decision for change has been made, I do not get to live in all it’s newness yet, so I am left with just the end of one thing, while awaiting the beginning of the other.

Storms, roadblocks and challenge (or lack of challenge) are often the seeds of change. Things come into our lives and make us question the status quo. We feel uncomfortable, unsteady, unsure.

For some, our first response is to flee, for others it is to fight to the bitter end. For many, we fight for awhile, then flee.

Both responses are good, both can bring us to where we need to be, what we need to learn. Both require faith in the unseen.

Hebrews 11:1 is the verse that gives definition of this blind faith:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.”

The Matthew Henry Commentary describes what is being said in Hebrews further:

“Faith always has been the mark of God’s servants, from the beginning of the world. Where the principle is planted by the regenerating Spirit of God, it will cause the truth to be received, concerning justification by the sufferings and merits of Christ. And the same things that are the object of our hope, are the object of our faith.”

Choosing to believe in what we cannot see, but what the principles the God has taught and the character of who he is, is the most foundational aspect of our christian life.

But our blind faith comes with the assurance that that “for now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Choices we make in our lives are, most frequently, choices of trust and faith in what we do not know fully. Who to marry, whether to purchase a certain home, what to order at that new restaurant, whether or not to change jobs all have uncertainty in the choice.

The choice for Christ, though, comes with the guarantee that we will have hindsight, that our sight will be returned to us, and that we will see how all the dots of our life will connect.

As Horatio Stafford said, “And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight … Even so, it is well with my soul.”

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Thin Veil

Posted in GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #smokeyhaze, #thebeautybeyond, #thethinveil., #whatisinbetweenyouandgod, #whatwelongfor on August 3, 2017| Leave a Comment »

veil

The last few days were warm summer days without the delight of a bright blue sky, as the sky was filled with smoke from forest fires in our province.

It has been as though there were a thin veil between we on this Earthen sod, and the beautiful blue sky above. I long for that blue summer sky.

Though we cannot see it today, we know the endless sky and sun are there, and, as a gentle reminder of their presence, the heat of the sun still comes through to warm the land and our skin. It is still there, it is just hidden behind a thin veil of smoke.

Yesterday, I caught myself turning my head up to the sky, looking, searching for blue in the vast sea of grey and haze. Yet, there was no blue to be seen. I know it is there, yet this smokey haze is hiding it from view.

I was reminded of this verse, from 2 Corinthians 3:16:

“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord,
the veil is taken away.”

Such confident words.

whenever
as in any time, no conditions attached.

anyone
as in, if you’ve got a heartbeat, no exemptions.

turns
as in, you have to do something, inactivity won’t cut it.

to the Lord
as in, He is the only way, no other.

is
as in, it happens now, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but right now.

It is that easy. Unlike the smokey haze coming between me and that beautiful sky, which I have no ability to move from view, with the God of Creation, all we need to do is turn to Him, and the veil is taken away, gone … forever.

Our souls long for that view.

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When I am Old and Gray

Posted in GOD, life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #howwilltheyrememberme, #inspiredbyafuneral, #wheniamoldandgray, #whenidie on July 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Last month hubby and I went to the funeral of an older man.

I have been to many funerals that made me cry, laugh and sigh, but this one made me want to live better. Not eat healthier foods and get more exercise, but to live each day with a desire to make life better for others.

It was said how he adored each day with his wife of the last few years. They had met each as widowers and found that the other made their days better.

Children, by birth and by marriage, spoke of his support, his acceptance of them.

Grandchildren spoke of how their grandfather always had time for they and their friends, at his home or the family cabin.

Others spoke of his support as a friend. How hard working he was in his occupation, before retirement. His joy in supporting a summer camp, with his physical strength, his financial support and by sending his children and grandchildren to attend. His commitment to his creator, and his joy in sharing that relationship with others. His active attendance in his church, and to his church family.

As I sat through the memorial, I found myself making mental notes. I found myself desiring to live the rest of my days, with my own funeral/memorial in mind.

Maybe that is what we should all do … live our lives as if each day would be taken into consideration for what would be shared at our final service.

Most of all, I hope that, in the end, I have left a legacy of love and that I have pointed to Christ, for all the joyful blessings as well as for the strength when the blessings are fewer to see.

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