Yes, I Did Take a Shopping Cart

Ironically, the only time I've seen a police car on my street recently, was the day my car decided  not to start, and I had to walk to the grocery store, 'borrow' a cart, promising to give it back. The manager at the store was kind and understanding, and readily gave me permission to take the cart and return it.

I was just emerging from my street on the return trip with the empty cart in tow, when the patrol car slowed, and stopped beside me. The officer eyed me warily, asking what I was doing with the cart. Several answers, in retrospect would have made an embarrasing situation funny - or maybe not.

"I plan on stealing it and using it to transport illegal drugs around the neighborhood."

"I always take this cart; I'm surprised you haven't noticed before."

"I'm homeless and I'm going to raid the trash cans at the park for plastic and aluminum."

"Can I get your name? I'd like to put in a good word for you at the station. I'm awfully glad you're out here checking the neighborhood!"

-and my personal favorite-

"I'm researching attitudes of policemen towards low income society."

He gave me a grudging pass and moved on. It felt a little like when I was a child and everyone else had jumped on the bed, but when I got on, Mom walked in the room. 

We want to be thought well of, don't we? Even when all appearance shouts otherwise!

At any rate, I'm going to be a bit less judgmental when spying someone else with a shopping cart.

Full Nest

Fruit bowl overflowing with bananas, apples, oranges and tangerines.












Food from all over the world crammed in the pantry.

 


 Old silver-plate and white, lacy doilies stacked in cupboards.














Music books from ancient times to modern struggling to keep within their boundaries near the piano. Bookshelves spilling out their treasures into stacks on the floor. Autographs of friends and guests scrawled on the 'graffiti wall' in the coat closet. Care packages waiting to be sent to Germany and South Korea.




A garage full of Christmas decorations, camping gear and sewing projects. Logs piled up on the back porch.








Sound equipment, cds, dvds in bedrooms, living rooms. Schoolwork on coffee tables. Bills and files on the counter. People talking, eating, watching movies, reading books, doing homework and cleaning up their belongings in every nook and cranny.

This ain't no empty nest, baby! This is my life.


And I love it!

Real Women Make Quiche

I am wrapping up and putting away lights and greenery, seeing  bare walls once again, and tasting the onion quiche-lets I made this morning while still remembering with a wistful mental glance the Yale professor  from Connecticut I watched online this morning as he talked, his crisp shirt still marked with a crease on one side from being in a new wrapper, of poetry, publishing and syllabi.

And I wondered why it was that instead of being one of the listening, bobbing heads I could barely see in front of the camera, as he spoke of Yates, Hughes, and Frost, I was making quiche-lets, and boxing up Christmas in Sunny California.

This is where I live. This is what I do.

But I still wonder.

The Empty Boxes

Well, it's over for another year. The empty boxes are stacked up, trash can overflowing with discarded who-knows-what. We have been blessed with another Christmas! Despite my fears and misgivings, I was able to bless my children with gifts, and in the eyes of any second or third world onlooker, they are spoiled.

The fact is, I rub shoulders exclusively with first worlders, and compared to the average American, our Christmas was modest. That's not to say we were not extremely blessed and thankful. We revelled in the day, in wonder at our blessings.

But the truth is, each morning our boxes are all empty, no matter how full they may have been the night before, and we await the filling of ourselves from the Master Giver, from Whom all Blessings Flow.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo!

Feasting

I've been feasting lately. Don't worry. It's not a holiday binge, although on second thought, maybe.

You know how athletes in training, and kids who are growing eat you out of house and home, because they use up calories so fast they can't seem to get enough? Well that's how my spiritual life has been lately. I've been running a faith/trial  marathon, and I can't seem to get enough encouraging, admonishing, and correcting words if I go too long without truth-the kind you get from reading the Bible or attending church. I feel a need to contemplate a steady diet of truth to soothe my battle-scarred soul. I'm a bottomless pit!

It really is remarkable how you can be hungry for truth, get some, and the next hour, need more.

Proverbs says the wise man is hungry for truth. I hope I'm getting wiser. I've certainly devoured my quota of truth lately. How about you? Any truth feasts?

Thy words were found, and I did eat them. -the Bible

Castle Living

We toured a castle this weekend. I've often fantasized about living in one. Turrets, braziers in the great room, tapestries on the wall, a roast pig turning on a spit on the hearth, and of course a moat to keep out undesirable enemies. I would be the lady of the castle and order delicacies caught on the expansive grounds and prepared in the kitchen below in stone ovens. Entertainment would be provided during our elaborate feasts by courtiers, musicians and artisans, and everyone would revere the lord of the castle, my husband, of course! Our conquests and magnanimous treatment of everyone in our employ (noble knights included) would be known throughout the land.

That was before my furnace went out.

I had heard that castles were cold. Somehow I'd left the actual temperature out of my fantasy.

We've been waking up to temperatures under 60 F. I must concede that a castle just might get colder than that, unless you're glued to the fireplace.

I've been very attached to my fireplace lately, but last night we used up the last of the firewood. Which is why today, I'm typing this post at my local (warm) coffee shop. My lord (hubby) told me that the price of a cup of coffee would be cheaper than cranking up the electric space heater or turning on the oven, again. I'm not in a castle. But I'm warm.

Fireside

It only takes a spark
to get a fire going
and soon all those around
can warm up to its glowing
that's how it is with God's love
once you experience it
you want to sing
its fresh like spring
you want to pass it on

Do you remember this 'hippie song' from the seventies?

When I was a teen we used to sing it every week in our youth group meeting. Songs come and go in popularity, but love never does. This weekend, we have been surrounded by love, of all kinds, from all corners, and we are still in the warm glow of it all.

My children reminded me that they are huddling under multiple blankets at home, because our furnace is broken and the part is on order. Oops, sorry kids. I however, am still in the warm glow of their love, as they once again sent us off joyfully to have our weekend alone.

I hope you, my reader, are surrounded by love in your life. If not, I hope you'll find a warm spot to huddle up next to, and nurture your soul with people who love you. Perhaps that may even be in the words of a gifted writer. I've been enjoying the writings of George MacDonald lately as he ruminates about the intimate and real love of our heavenly Father. Perhaps you are the spark of love for others as well.

Go and warm your world!