Life Clings to Life

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know Spud is an inspiration for many of my posts.  But he’s not the only one in my family through whom God chooses to channel.  I learn a whole lot about life from my husband, “Bonsai Bill”!

Bill has been practicing the art of Bonsai for about thirty years.  He started with one of those mass produced trees sold at a kiosk in the shopping mall, which he promptly killed!  However, not to be deterred, he continued to read about bonsai (this of course was pre–internet days), take classes, ask questions, and take more classes, until today I would say he is quite the Bonsai expert.  He long ago stopped buying prefab trees, but rather digs stock directly from the ground – sometimes with permission of the property owner, sometimes not – but in his defense; it is always a vacant lot!

As I watch him plant, prune, water, fertilize, or sculpt branches, I am always amazed at the patience involved with this art AND the ease with which Bill connects the secrets of nature to everyday life.  Many times while on a walk, he’ll notice a seedling that has sprouted out of seemingly solid rock or driving on a country road Bill will point to a lone tree on top of a cliff and say “Life clings to life wherever it is given a chance”

So the other day, while on our morning walk, Spud and I spotted a petunia growing from a crack between the curb and driveway.  There were no other signs of vegetation, in fact I was hard pressed to see any dirt, yet there was this white petunia clinging to life.    Even where it seems impossible, God provides a place to grow. 

 

Where might you be ‘clinging to life’ lately?  Perhaps that’s just the spot God intended!

Donuts of Joy

On Mother’s Day, I was reminded of the pure joy in the simple things in life.  Of course it wouldn’t take too many guesses as to who was doing the reminding; Spud, along his Pug cousins!

Knox and Azi are our son and daughter-in-laws darling Pugs, thus I refer to them as Spud’s cousins!  Much to Spud’s delight, they joined our family BBQ to celebrate Mother’s Day.  For a good part of the afternoon, Spud spent his time trying to get them to play.  He’d nudge, bark, annoy, - encourage them in any way he could think of, until finally it happened!  Those two little guys took off after my boy, chasing him in circles around and around the backyard.  Mind you Spud is three years younger and about fifty pounds heavier than Knox and Azi; not quite an even match, but that didn’t matter to any of them.  The Pugs were giving it their all, nipping at Spud’s heels as fast as their little legs could run! Spud, on the other hand, seemed aware of the disparity in size and age.  He certainly wasn’t running full bore and kept looking back to see if his cousins were able to keep up the pace!

My son captured the whole scene on video, which brings sheer joy every time I watch it.  Spud feels no need to ‘win’ the contest; he’s just leaping around the yard happy to be surrounded by his family.  The simple things! 

Likewise, I’m taken with the background laughter from all of us witnessing these ‘donuts of joy’.   It made me think about how seldom I laugh like that, how it comes so naturally to speak/write about the challenging moments of life while pure joy can seem so elusive.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Maybe I just need to more open to joy in the simple things and when they happen, have a great big old belly laugh of delight!

Knox and Azi took a long nap afterwards, while Spud went back to chasing bees and lizards!

 

A Wink or a Baptism?

In one of my first postings I talked about “God Noticings”; those times when we know the coincidence is not merely a coincidence, dots are connected, the missing piece is found which completes the puzzle.   Encounters that we know at the very core of our being is about something bigger than us – a “God Thing”, if you will.  A friend said she calls these a ‘wink’ from God.  It’s as if He enjoys sending us opportunities to glimpse His presence in our life.

But I have recently been introduced to a new idea when it comes to God noticings.  In his book God Hides in Plain Sight by Dean Nelson, he writes about witnessing baptisms in the muck and mire or our every day lives.  I’m not talking about baptism in the church, although certainly that is the foundation from where we begin.  Rather Mr. Nelson suggests some of our noticings may go deeper than a ‘wink’ from God, it might be something that will cause us to shed our old skin and take on the new.  Our journey happens upon a detour, we realize there has been a change, we are walking a new path; we have experienced a baptism.

I believe our recent vacation to Hawaii was a baptism experience for me!  On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it a six – Bill on the other hand would give it a ten.  He was able to get past the wind, rain, and rocky beach, I was not.    So how does this equate to a baptism encounter?   I began to realize God was handing me an opportunity to wash away yet another layer of my need for perfection.  Not only my need for perfection, but my need to cover up those times that are less than perfect.  I made the decision I would be honest when asked how I enjoyed my vacation;  a change of direction on my path of not only accepting myself, but also not projecting to others that which I perceive they want to hear.

Let me close with a quote from God Hides in Plain Sight:

“. . . the Kingdom of God is continuously visiting, interrupting, invading, disrupting, what we perceive to be the world.  We step into the Jordan River throughout our day.  When we let it wash the chatter around us, we hear the voice that says ‘you are more than your job, your role, your mask.  You are mine.  And I am pleased.’  When we step out of the river, we are initiated, illumined, and clean.”

Have you witnessed a wink from God lately?

 How about a baptism?