silly

"Let's Party..." a souvenir we didn't bring home

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: SPRING (Rain, Puddles, Boots, Umbrellas, Sunny Days, Leaves in Trees,...)

kindnesses (#756 − 766 of 1000 gifts)

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa

"Always be a little kinder than necessary" - James M. Barrie

Though the weather is cold, the last two weeks have been made warmer by kindness. It was a great treat to spend last Monday celebrating my brother and his wife's wedding anniversary. They treated us to dinner and coffee later (something's wrong with that picture!). When we went to visit uncle in the Abbotsford Menno Hospital, Auntie served us tea in her nearby assisted living suite. Kindness, tea or coffee, and food—what a great combination!

Here is my list of kindnesses, ultimately from our gracious Heavenly Father, collected over the last two weeks.

756. The beauty of green, growing on gnarled branches.

757. Our friend is making a recovery following his near-death experience. Thank You Lord!

758. A new, fun mural on the backside of McBurney's Coffee House in Langley, replacing the faded old buggy that was starting to show its age.

759. Last weekend's powerful church conference, with much to think about (and some new tunes to sing).


760. Hosting a billet and making a new friend.

761. A magical day in Vancouver with my bro and his wife. (This is the view outside the window of their hotel room where we had tea and played Phase 10 for several hours.)

762. Magenta berries—by the thousands.

763. Pounding surf.

764. Making the acquaintance of the charming Sylvia hotel and its once-upon-a-time mascot Got to Go. (These are the muscled arms of Virginia creeper. It covers the hotel's facade in summer.)

765. Cold beauty.

766. Having tea with a dear auntie.

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here.

just start (710-716 of 1000 gifts)

"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible." 

Saint Francies of Assisi

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:13 NKJV 

I am about to embark on one of those weeks when everything comes due all at once! Besides the usual Monday laundry routine and preparing pastor's sermon notes for our church's life groups, I now teach a class every Wednesday morning for which I must prepare. It's our class's week to bring goodies for coffee time this Wednesday. Also on Wednesday I'm hosting the Christian Carnival on my Devotional blog.

On Thursday morning the class I'm teaching is scheduled to work at the barn, shucking and sifting lavender for a fundraising project. It's also my turn to post on the Inscribe blog. Later that day, or Friday (not sure when yet) friends from out of province are coming to visit. On the weekend, the kids are coming. Monday is Thanksgiving, so there's a dinner to shop for and prepare!

All of the above is why I chose the motivational quote and Bible verse above—to give me some traction as I enter this crazy week. Hopefully seven days from today I'll be amazed at how all the necessary stuff got done, even though at the moment it seems a bit overwhelming!

Looking back on the week that was, again I have much for which to be grateful...

710. Affirmation for a writing project I submitted to a contest.

711. Driving into the sunrise.

712. Playlists and podcasts on my ipod. Listening to them made the driving hours go by ever so quickly.

713. More time with family.

714. Trees in autumn bloom.

715. A Sunday walk along Bedford Channel (Fort Langley).

716. The wardrobe switcheroo is done. I love getting reacquainted with my winter clothes. It's like getting back together with old friends.

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here.

This post is also linked at today's  "In, On and Around Mondays" post on Seedlings in Stone.

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keeping my nose to the joy trail (#579 − 589 of 1000 gifts)

"You have to sniff out joy. Keep your nose to the joy trail"- Buffy Sainte-Marie

It's been a summer week of getting a few things done, and waiting for the sun...

579. Historic sight on the river — a canoe full of coureurs de bois? It was definitely French we heard, drifting across the water.

580. A secret garden (not mine; I wish it were).

581. Quiet days for getting stuff done.


582. Lots of rain. No need to water the garden.

583. These are out. Does anyone know what they're called? They bloom in abundance along the river flood plain and smell of fresh laundry.

584. Platz - made for lunch with friends on Saturday (the recipe is here in case you're interested in making this dessert that uses almost any fruit you have on hand). For this one I sprinkled a layer of frozen cranberries over thawed peaches and nectarines to give the filling a wonderfully tangy edge. It's so good with ice-cream.

585. Coffee with friends in the charming atrium of a square of shops in Fort Langley. Saturday was a rainy day so we had the place to ourselves.

586. Frogs. These cuties seem to be loving the weather.

587. A birdhouse that gives new meaning to the verse:

"Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;

         They will still be praising You" - Psalm 84:4.

     

588. Vivid lilies seen at Driediger Farrms, to which we found our way quite by accident on our rainy day drive. Besides these photos, we went home with flats of fresh strawberries and raspberries!

589. Inscribe Christian Writers' Fellowship. It's a Canadian writing group I'm so pleased to be a part of. I blogged about them today at Line upon line. If you're a Canadian Christian writer and not a member, come on over to see what you're missing.

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here.

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C.S. Lewis Birthday Party etc. (#174 to 180 of 1000 gifts)

Today (November 29th) is the anniversary of C. S. Lewis's birthday. In honour of the Christian bard, I quote from one of my favourite books of his: The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil. How's this for a bit of upside-down advice:

"My Dear Wormwood,

You mentioned casually in your last letter that the patient has continued to attend one church, and one only, since he was converted, and that he is not wholly pleased with it. May I ask what you are about? Why have I no report on the causes of his fidelity to the parish church? Do you realize that unless it is due to indifference it is a very bad thing? Surely know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches..." p. 81

(This birthday celebration is  sponsored by "Into the Wardrobe — a C. S. Lewis Website" with a party on Facebook.)

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And on to naming this weeks' gifts:

Lavender - from roadside to sachets, a labour of love (Can't you just smell it!)

174. Our lavender project (all about raising money to fund reconstructive surgery for girls and young women in Uganda who have been facially disfigured by rebel soldiers-- project #5 on this page) is into the final sale phase. A big hug to my sis who is helping by selling them at the library where she works!


175. Alpha - two weeks from done. A big sigh of relief from this kitchen coordinator.

176. Ballroom dance classes — also only two weeks left and another big sigh of relief from the klutzy Mennonite girl who never learned to dance in her youth when it would have been a lot easier to etch those neural pathways between brain and feet.

177. My poetry group in Abbotsford. Our potluck last Wednesday night was fun — and tasty.

178. Last week's snow — beautiful!

179. I'm also thankful it's gone, along with the brutally cold weather. I love our normal winter days of cool, not cold temps (5-10C), with lots of humidity (so my hair doesn't go totally limp and straight).


180. Mini-mandarin oranges. These have to be the cutest fruits imaginable and so sweet!

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

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on usefulness

Photo: planters on a dock - Victoria B.C.

"If I say -- I wonder if I am of any use -- I instantly lose the bloom of the touch of the Lord. 'He that believeth in me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.' If I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.

Which are the people who have influenced us most? Not the ones who thought they did, but those who had not the remotest notion that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, the implicit is never conscious; if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring."

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

O. Chambers on Submission

"We are not built for ourselves, but for God. Not for service for God, but for God. That explains the submissions of life....

God is not concerned about our aims. He does not say, 'Do you want to go through this bereavement, this upset?' He allows these things for His own purpose. We may say what we like, but god does allow the devil, He does allow sin, He does allow bad men to triumph and tyrants to rule, and these things either make us fiends or they make us saints, it depends entirely on our relationship with God. If we say, 'Thy will be done,' we get the tremendous consolation of knowing that our Father is working everything according to His own wisdom. If we understand what God is after, we shall be saved from being mean and cynical.

The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, nobler men and women, or they are making us more captious, more insistent on our own way. We are either getting more like our Father in heaven, or we are getting more mean and intensely selfish. How are we behaving ourselves in our circumstances?"

Oswald Chambers in If You Will Ask - Reflections on Prayer (pp. 49-50).

I see on Amazon there is a 1521-page book of Oswald Chambers' complete works available. There are also 31 reviews - all five-star. I want that book...

sunday quote - anger

"A little too much anger, too often or at the wrong time, can destroy more than you would ever imagine. Above all, mind what you say. 'Behold how much wood is kindled by how small a fire, and the tongue is a fire' --that's the truth. When my father was old he told me that very thing in a letter he sent me. Which, as it happens, I burned. I dropped it right in the stove. This surprised me a good deal more at the time than it does in retrospect."

-from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

sunday quote - Why?

Why must I weep when others sing?
'To test the deeps of suffering.'
Why must I work while others rest?
'To spend my strength at God's request.'
Why must I lose while others gain?
'To understand defeat's sharp pain.'
Why must this lot of life be mine
When that which fairer seems is thine?
'Because God knows what plans for me
will blossom in eternity.'

from Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

sunday quote

On His own side of the covenant, God declares himself to be Providence, the Great Good Giver....

On our side of the covenant, God asks merely that we obey. This isn't considered payment for his gifts; nothing from a finite creature could match the Infinite Creator's bounty. Obedience, rather, is free and willing, evidence that we acknowledge God to be God, wise and good, choosing ever the best for his children... Obedience, then, is worship. Obedience is the action and the expression of our love for him. It is how we love him.

- Walter Wangerin Jr. from Mourning Into Dancing

sunday quote

"They were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia." (Acts 16:6)

It is interesting to study the methods of His guidance as it was extended towards these early heralds of the Cross. It consisted largely in prohibitions, when they attempted to take another course than the right.

.... Beloved, whenever you are doubtful as to your course, submit your judgment absolutely to the Spirit of God, and ask Him to shut against you every door but the right one. Say, "Blessed Spirit, I cast on Thee the entire responsibility of closing against my steps any and every course which is not of God. Let me hear Thy voice behind me whenever I turn to the right hand or the left."

In the meanwhile, continue along the path which you have been already treading. Abide in the calling in which you are called unless you are clearly told to do something else.

F. B. Meyer, Paul (Quoted in Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman)

Photo: Footbridge over the Nicomekl River - Langley, BC - Closed earlier this month when rain and melting snow caused high water levels and flooding.

sunday quote

"When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, 'Yes, this is how I ought to feel.'"

- Rabbi Harold Kushner

sunday quote

Wait Patiently Wait

  Wait patiently wait
  God never is late;
Thy budding plans are in Thy Father's holding,
And only wait His grand divine unfolding.
  Then wait, wait,
  Patiently wait.

  Trust, hopefully trust,
  That God will adjust
Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,
Will bring His will, in all its bright revealings.
  Then trust, trust,
  Hopefully trust.

  Rest, peacefully rest
  On thy Saviour's breast;
Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition,
And He will bring it forth in best fruition.
  Then rest, rest,
  Peacefully rest!

- Mercy A. Gladwin

sunday quote

"Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame"

- Thomas a Kempis

sunday quote

"Is death the final sleep?"

"No, it's the final awakening."

- Walter Scott

sunday quote

"In the name of Jesus Christ who was never in a hurry, we pray, O God, that You will slow us down, for we know that we live too fast. With all of eternity before us, make us take time to live -- time to get acquainted with You, time to enjoy Your blessings, and time to know each other."

- Peter Marshall, 1902-1949