Sunshine on Four Oaks Farm
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Friday, February 11, 2022
Perfection
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
The Long Conversation
Thursday, November 25, 2021
What I Didn't Do
If I didn't worry... if I didn't ...what then? It would take time, but something would grow from that looking away...that ignoring. Like the long curls cascading down the back a slow change would occur from what I didn't do... if I didn't worry, if I didn't. And it has begun; the slow, the easy, the steady change, the turning of the back to the prodding problem, to the frightful future. To the bad news I turn my back and do nothing...Instead of acting, I just "trust fall" again and again. To the heavy thoughts of days ahead alone, of getting older and when things go wrong, of sickness and such silly things I do not sink into concern. I do not feed the frenzy that comes to me poking, asking, threatening to invade my head and my heart. Once the frenzy came shouting at me and I pulled up a chair to listen awhile. What if "this"? What if "that"? It shouted. I went for a walk with my friend. 'Round and 'round on the road winding between tombstones and big old trees we walked shuffling a gathering of Canadians into the graves. I told her what I'd heard and she said, "Rhonda....the Lord! The Lord is already there at the end of each concern and He will take care of you." Sometimes I need a friend to help me in what I shouldn't do. I shouldn't worry. And if I don't something new will grow. It will. And I will look different. I will talk different. A change will come because of what I didn't do.
Sunday, May 30, 2021
May
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
The Cat's Way
The sight of a soft cat on the floor, utterly relaxed, batting the ornament she took from my small tree caught my eye. She is rolling about with it, immersed in the amusement. It has struck me that these are moments of the profound.
Nearby an uptight human sitting at her computer, praying robust and hard
prayers for sons, for country, for city, for leaders, for churches, for
justice, her shoulders are tightly held, her mind is fixed and her heart is
sober and hopeful until this glancing to the right and this funny beholding
sets the mind suddenly free as the full-bodied, well-fed cat bats the small, red ornament
under the couch. She may do this for the
entire day, I mused. She’s evidently done this all night as I found the small tree
laying flat on its face and ornaments scattered across the room. She’d jumped into my lap three times this
morning hoping to sway me to her will: “Pat me. Pay attention to only me! Can’t
you hear me purring?!”
What is the profound in this to me? It is this, "Don't forget to be free, to be
at ease, to linger in the peace that is yours to enjoy." Should only the cat
enjoy the peace and ease afforded us? Let your prayers for justice, for
freedom, for truth, for mercy rise high. Pray your prayers and then rest in a measure
of the cat’s peace and you will have it all.
😉
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
Monday, August 3, 2020
Little Worm
Who is this little worm, but a mite on my
windshield? Wiggling about, such a phenomenon.
So small, not more than half a centimeter, but charged with the vigor of an
athlete. I thought his tummy must be
full of food to have such energy-- and how did he light upon my windshield? Had he been spinning a long strand of web
too?
I had a trunk full of groceries. I bought a little extra this time in case I can’t go back soon. The little worm shrugged at me with a blushing of pink all about. He has no care over powerful monopolies of food and such things. He needs no warehouse of goods to sustain him. He feeds in the open air as I plopped my bulk groceries down into a large cart. Alone in the warehouse full of people, no one bothered to look much at the other, all awkward behind masks. He feeds outside of the system I’m in, I mused. He does not envy me nor beg to come in. What more could he need? Little worm, how I'd like to enter yours.
I, inside my car, trying to enjoy a moment beside
a lovely lake, but concerned about the cottage cheese and meat in my cooler and
concerned that I find a bathroom in due time. I’m caught up in a system chosen
for me before I was. Need it always be?
Little worm, may I come into your way? Leave the extra canned goods behind and wander
in the ease of your dwellings? The lake was
mine for only a few moments, but it is yours your whole life through, though beautifully
short and sweet. We try much harder than you to extend ours.
"Get out of the car, get out of the race for the
normal and safe", I say to myself. Let the world go on fading and the King take His place. What am I saying? Do I even yet know? I’m
only “considering the lilies” and a promise I hold.
Mathew 6: 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or
about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than
food, and the body more than clothes…….
Friday, July 31, 2020
Adams Rd.
I saw a parcel of land for sale for a solid sum. In the photo advertising, a large oak tree stood next to a shabby white house with ivy growing up the trunk. I think I would give the whole sum for one oak tree if my bank account obliged. Massive limb-arms made of strength and integrity and wood; great limbs stretch horizontal far. And when any oak hangs its massive limbs low, like the giant arms of my father, for a daughter or a son of Adam to climb up, a transaction is made that can never be revoked.
No one has ever forgotten climbing about on an oak limb, nor the feeling of bark against the skin; legs dangling over the earth, one would go even higher--knees pressed into the ridges struggling for ascent, blood rushing under the skin, and a breeze igniting a sense of losing the bonds of the earth.
Adams Road, Ozark.