Reading THE MESSAGE

I sat today for several hours reading.  Going through Galatians.....slowly, with broken boldness, to get my heart around the freedom that IS MINE IN CHRIST.  Wanting it more than a meal, or a cruise, or a precious jewel....

Reading these words in The Message version because the book was on the table next to the chair, and I am a visitor here free to take up interesting books on the coffee table.  I am also a visitor to this version of scripture....but after today, I would like to be at home here with this book.  Listen to the word of Galatians 5: 16 - 26.......
Paul says, "My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit.  Then you won't feel the compulsions of selfishness.  For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.  These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day.  Why don't you chose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap-sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage;  frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid lonliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied-wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or to be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lop-sided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing every one into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.  I could go on.

This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know.  If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

But what happens when we live God's way?  He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an  orchard - things like affection for others,  exuberance about life, serenity.  We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart,  and a conviction that a basic  holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,  not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.  Among those who belong to christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off  for good......crucified.

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.   that means we will not compare ourselves with each other  as if one of us were better and another worse.  We have far more interesting things to do with our lives.  Each of us is an original."

Frozen Insects

Visiting my sister Kris this week.  She lives in a glorious spot, near the King's Canyon, in a setting that can take your breath away.  This is Hume Lake.  She lives here with her husband and four children.  A visit here means family, fellowship, fastwalks-with-someone, good coffee, soul food....in every sense, catch-up with nieces and nephews that are constantly morphing into older people, sunny afternoons at the lake, loons, little red cayaks,  time to read and introductions to more good books, beautiful forest fauna, and some very interesting insects.
Last night, the cousins presented their collection box of frozen specimens.  They had collected several before the snows came, and found a few more recently.  All of them were in pristine condition.  All were preserved within minutes of being caught.  All of them represented "love" for me.....a crazy Auntie who really likes entomology.
The nine-line chafer beetle is as beautiful as any insect gets.....golden browns with white stripes down the back.  He has lovely insect fur on his underside, like a moth.  His antennae are club-like, and it took several hours to identify them today because of what I thought I was seeing.  My nephew Nate explained something new that I did not know.....what looks like a delicate "club" is really an intricate fan, all closed up.

Early in the spring, I had decided that I really needed to acquire a new bug collection.  My old one is just that.  Lots of eager hands come in contact with my insect specimens through out the year.....which is really important for them, and really hard on the bugs.  In college, I was given the assignment of collecting "One Hundred Specimens".  This summer, a young friend and I are doing collections of 250.
Coming to Hume Lake, I hoped I would have some time to find a few.  This gift of  14 is a precious gift.

Resolved

Summer is in the air.  Officially, we will welcome this season of  longer days, warmer days, garden days, and cabin days on June 21.....but the lovely feelings of time slowing down and good books begun begins in my heart as I box up the school year papers and planner.   I think I am craving "Garden Lazagna" again, with no memory of zucchini fatigue last August.  I must find the copy of COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO....and begin.   Determined to have tidier tomatoe plants this summer, I must find the green tape to begin securing the gangly branches to the cages.  There are never enough white zinneas for cutting so I will plant those seeds before the week-end.
Agnes, the scott terrier, looks hot and scruffy....time for a summer cut at the groomers.
My picnic basket silverware needs a good polish....ready for the first library concert.
Good bye for now jeans, I will see you again in the early days of November.
The "cabin calendar" sits by the phone at Mom and Dad's.....let's plan some four day week-ends....today.
I found a lovely French chair at the flea market.....now is the time to chose the voile, make yards of piping, and begin the process of doing this myself.
I have been reading Psalm 90 for weeks now.  I want these words IN my heart.  I want "word retreival" like a young poetry student....I want words stored for storms ahead.  Time to begin.
Both of my daughters are away at camp this summer.....this is the season for meaningful letters...the real ones, on paper with an address and a stamp, or better yet parchment with a wax seal.
My marriage needs "soul knitting".....I have time, and am eager to give.

These things are reasonable.  Time is a gift.  Summer, a delight.
Grateful to the Ancient of Days....Who numbers our days.....Dana

Heartstrings

This is a photo of my precious family at a gathering of friends from long ago.  We gathered to reconnect in the midst of so many variables,  new addresses, older adult children with beautiful lives that seem so well-suited to their gifts and graces, and the phenomenon of being "family" during the holiday....happy to see each other but very happy about private lives lived away from home.  We are smiling like it's been easy.  We are smiling because we love to have good visits with good friends and good food.  We are a family that has braved some very stormy seas in the last decade....I rejoice that we smile, and hold each other in gratitude.  There is an unusual freedom here....freedom to love, and to receive the changes that have come our way.   To remain open, to receive the many joys, comforts, failures, and triumphs that life has brought along the path.....this is a new skill for me, a very good process to be in, and I am grateful.

My Friend

Please let me introduce you to my new little friend, Beta.  She is like sunshine on a spring morning, where you really want to stay in the warmth and soak it all in.  She has a smile that can warm up a room, and a laugh that is lusty and loud.  She calls me "Solomon" because that was how she heard it the first time we met.....I hope she never alters it.  She loves little dogs, scrambled eggs, taco dinners, "Annie" the Musical,  Babar the elephant,  Dora the Explorer, and Hello Kitty.  Beta loves the color purple, pronouncing it "pwoo-pel".  We both like bugs, and guinea pigs, and tiny frogs.  

Beta arrived in America four days after the earthquake in Haiti.  The timing of her arrival, and the beautiful place that she has in her family makes Providence as glorious as it gets here on this earth.  In this photo she is holding her family's house sign.....ssoooooo happy to have a family, and a MOM and a DAD, and brothers and a sister.  The whole thing reeks of gratitude....her gratitude in receiving all of the stuff that adoption has given her.....security, purpose. happy days and plans for more, the comfort of love and the comfort of care, care that won't end today or be spread thin at the orphanage.  Beta makes me think differently about all kinds of things that I am certain I take for granted.  

Industrious One

I have a daughter who is industrious.    Truly, this girl can "get it done".  Her mind THINKS this way, mine feels like mush in comparison.  I think about colour, hue, scents, and texture.  She thinks date, time, reason, and motive.  I let lunch interrupt any process; she won't eat lunch until the process is finished.  I read to "let go"......she reads to "grab onto".   I can't sit at my desk if there is a mess all around it; she can't work without the crazy piles everywhere!  Paperwork is worthy of an entry in the planner for this girl.....I stuff mine under the new platter of mosses and mushrooms.  I want to get my head around Latin and French;  she remembers phrases from a quiz five years ago or the song on the tape playing in the car when she was six.  I want to learn to communicate; she takes the class, and then teaches me.  I see the lovely Italian coat in the window while we are shopping; she quietly reminds me of the outstanding bill she needs to consider six months from now.   I have been so broke I couldn't pay to have a haircut; she says she  can certainly figure out my style....and she does, every six weeks....for free.

Like a crocus, long in the soil, this girl has been preparing for something much bigger than I understand.  Her real life and world are just beginning.  I will watch with baited breath.  I will admire, and rejoice.  I will see some of the strength that has been brewing used to help the world in a new way.  I will see the beauty enhanced and understood.  I will watch with delight as she takes her understanding of "self" and begins now to touch the lives of many others.  

Mushrooms, after the rain

"Mushrooms are among the most mysterious life forms.  The ancient Greeks believed they came from Zeus's lightning because they appeared after the rains and reproduced and grew inexlicably.  In the Middle Ages, the circular patterns formed by some mushrooms were dubbed "fairy rings" and were thought to be the work of the "little people," who supposedly danced around them at midnight.

Mushrooms are mysterious, but not as they were once thought to be .  They appear suddenly, and often in places where they have not been seen before.  They have, in fact,  been out of sight, growing underground or beneath bark.   And much remains to be learned about fungi; some species contain dangerous toxins, many of which are not fully understood.  

Some mushrooms are of course edible.  Since Roman times, fungi have been famous as gourmet fare.  Truffles, boletes, chanterelles, and moels, all of which grow in North America, often fetch fantastic prices.  And with good reason: after tasting wild fungi, most people find the common cultivated mushroom bland and uninteresting.  Mushrooms also play a vital role in the world's ecosystem.  Many land plants could not thrive in their absence, since some establish a symbiotic relationship with fungi, exchanging essential nutrients.  And were it not for mushrooms, which hasten decomposition, many dead plants and fallen trees would take far longer to decay."

At age 49, I have fallen in love with mushrooms and fungi.  I am just beginning to identify the common mushrooms in North America...not to eat, but to sketch and to paint in my nature journals.   

The Fly

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