I started playing piano about a year ago. I was so good about practicing every day, and I was even impressed how quickly I was able to play some of the songs. But then spring came, and my true passion ensued: gardening. I love gardening so much; planting seeds, the smell of fresh soil, the first shoots of germination, the breath of new spring life.
On rainy days when I was off work, I still practiced, but those were few and far between. My poor piano sat neglected. But then eventually, as it always does, the frost came, and the piano came back to life. I lost so much from my negligence, but I’m gaining it back. I’m working my way to where I was when spring sprung and I ran outdoors, leaping for joy at the new growth and spring rain, and plants. I’m still ahead of where I was last year at this time when I just started.
My doctor told me that learning something new, like playing an instrument is amazingly good for your brain. It creates new pathways, new connections. The funny thing is, I can feel them growing!! I know, it sounds crazy, but I can feel my brain working, expanding and improving. I can only practice for so long, before I can’t take it anymore. Its as though my brain says, “Ok, this is all can muster for today,” and I need to stop.
I also want to learn Spanish, but I haven’t gotten very far with that. Buenas Tardes!! I have gotten through the first few lessons, however. If only I had more time!! I think this is why its so important to help our children learn these things when they are young. When we are children, we learn so much faster, and we have the time to learn, and to practice. But if we do not have the opportunities as children, there’s no reason not to learn the things we want to know as we get older. Its good for our brains, and its good for our self-esteem. I love being able to play a new song, or understand what someone said in Spanish, even though I maybe can’t say it on my own quite yet. The neural pathways are still being constructed. But once they are painstakingly built, I will work harder to keep them in good condition. Perhaps I will try speaking Spanish to my plants, or play them a song.
Its so good for each one of us to learn something new. Did you know that learning a new hobby or trade can ward off depression? How about protecting yourself from dementia and Alzheimer’s? I consider myself to be a bit young to worry about that yet, but as we all age, we all are at risk for so many mind-killing diseases and disorders.
You’ve always dreamed about learning a new language? Speak it!! It will only help you! Always dreamed of learning to play a musical instrument? Play it! It will make you feel great! Always wanted to learn a new hobby, or trade? Learn it!! It will set you ahead of yourself, and it will help your brain stay younger.
What are the dreams you have? The things you want to learn? What language do you want to speak? Find your interests, and go with it. Learn something new, no matter what your age. You’re NEVER too old to learn some new tricks!
As the leaves turn from green to yellow to red, the fruits ripen, and the chipmunks are busy gathering their winter supplies, my heart saddens, knowing the joyous days of summer’s heat are being cut short. The blue jays, with their clever calls mimicking the sound of a hovering hawk, fight over the acorns with the squirrels. The yellow jackets appear more intensely, hungry for every fallen apple, and ready to bite every intruder. The luscious season of tomatoes ripening, juicy goodness only available in the late summer, is almost over. The bags and bags of them in the entry way, waiting for me to do something.
The first nip of frost blackens my squash and pumpkins leaves, and they ripen quickly, forced into readiness by their natural enzymes. “Hurry up, everyone!” the frost seems to say, “Your time is almost done”. The zucchini plants make one final attempt to produce more fruit, and the yellow squash does the same, sending out new blossoms, calling to the bees. The bees are also in a hurry, to bring more nectar back to the hive for their winter syrup of life.
The wild animals grow heavier coats. My chickens grow in their heavy under feathers, getting ready for the cold. The air in the evenings has a crispness to it, a chill, and the fire warms our hands and feet. The leaves crunch underfoot. The flowers are faded, turning to stalks. The seeds blow on the wind, their ingenious parachutes and umbrellas of fuzz setting them adrift in the sky. Like the pioneers, they set off, not knowing where they will land, but they will try to make a life wherever that is.
The geese and ducks fly overhead. Going south, who can blame them? The Monarch butterflies too, migrating back to their warmer climate for survival. Their instinct pulls them into the migration patterns their ancestors followed for generations, and now they follow as well, creating an amazing pattern of life.
Every fall, I add another number to my chronological age. The numbers don’t really bother me like I thought they would, I still feel the same inside. An old neighbor of mine once told told me that the years go by faster the older you get. This scares me, because they go by so quickly already.
The winter comes every year, and every year it catches me off guard. I’m not ready. Not ready for the cold or the wind, or the snow or the ice. I wish for the warm nights of summer, fireflies dancing in the grass, and planting. Planting everything, working the garden to see what will grow, what will fail, and what will turn into something extraordinary from a seed, some dirt, and some water; the promise of what is yet to come. The miracle of life and death, and rebirth; of hibernation and migration, the circle of life.
My favorite thing about spring, summer, and fall, is my garden. Well, gardens. I have several flower gardens, and small plots of different things, but my vegetable garden is my prize. I love being able to grow my own food and share it with my children and their friends, and my friends and neighbors. I believe that we are meant to care for the Earth and nurture the soil and its inhabitants. I am an organic gardener, I use no man made chemicals. I use my labor, and my love instead. I do use some organically approved insecticidal soap if the need arises, but I normally don’t have an issue with bugs because I have chickens. Chickens eat the bugs before they can damage my crop. The chickens will eat a little out of my garden, but I offer them veggies and fruits they love in a designated area, so they usually just look in that spot if they want a tomato, or some over ripe raspberries or cucumbers. I put netting around my lettuce patch, but that is the chicken’s favorite. If I want any, I need to keep them out!
I always grow more than I need so I have some to offer to others. I use a heavy mulching method so I have very few weeds, and I can just enjoy my time looking at the plants and picking the harvest when its ready. Nothing tastes as good as vegetables right from the garden!
I don’t get to this blog as often in the summer, since I love being outdoors, and I try to spend my free time enjoying the short summer we have here in North Dakota. But today is a rainy day, and my laptop was calling.
I noticed that in the past year, more people from Brazil have read my blog than people from any other country. I want to say “hello!” and welcome my South American readers! I appreciate you, and I’d love to get to know you. If any of you are gardeners, or small business owners as well, I’d love to hear about it. In fact, I really love getting to know people from other countries and cultures, and I’d love it if you would drop me a line, and tell me about yourself!
Sometimes I feel like I am drifting through life with no real purpose. I am the wanderer, wandering.
I’ve done the homework, the writing, the thinking, the praying.
What am I meant for?
I can write out sheets and sheets of goals and purposes, but what do they really mean? What are they worth?
I can read book after book, and I have, but still, none of them tell me what I should be doing, what I should be giving back to this world.
I know that, in the sense of the Universe, I’m right where I need to be. I know how to act, how to be, how to love.
But what can I do to change the world?
What can I do to make some sense out of this crazy place called Earth, full of greed and hate, and apathy? Full of loneliness, despair, and hurt. Full of rejection, sadness, and sorrow.
What can I do to make people wake up and realize that this isn’t all there is, there is more!
I want to help. I want to change lives. I want to teach.
But the majority of people don’t want help, they don’t want to change, and they don’t want to learn.
If only I could open their eyes to see!! There is more than this!!! There is so much more!!!
So I work on me; my life, changing me, learning new things to help me. Maybe someday, this will pay off. But I still pace, wringing my hands, feeling like I should be doing something MORE. But what? What can I give? What can I give to this crazy Earth full of love and peace, and compassion? Full of happiness, joy, and kindness? Full of cooperation, encouragement, and God?
I will breathe in. I will breathe out. I will breathe in. I will breathe…and I will wait.
As a small business owner, one of things I do to enhance myself, is read books others people have written about business and life. I have learned some great things, and read some weird ideas. But the thing that is prevalent in most successful businesses is one thing: treating your customers the way you like to be treated.
This practice is easy for me, I’m generally a people person, and I like it when people leave the store with a smile on their face, or at least their heart. But its not only important in business, its important in all aspects of life.
When you treat people the way you want to be treated, you make yourself a more humble person. You can’t treat people well if you think you’re better than everyone. You can’t treat people well if you’re selfish and only think of yourself.
The Bible even tells us this: treat others the way you would like to be treated.
If I was hungry, I would like to be fed.
If I was naked, I would really like some clothes!
If I was thirsty, I would like a drink.
But honestly, when I’m sick, I want want to be by myself until I feel better.
(And I sure don’t plan on going to prison, but if I did, I’d really like a good lawyer.)
If there are ways that we can help others, I believe we should.
Sometimes, all it takes is an ear to listen, and a nonjudgmental ear at that. I’ve learned in life that people like to tell you their problems, but most of them don’t want your opinion. So if they don’t ask, try not to give it out. Even though you may have a really great solution to the problem, ask if they want advice, but don’t try to give freely what is not asked for.
I don’t want to imply that I’m the answer genius here, God knows I have problems of my own. But if I can help one person, my day is not wasted. It can be a very simple thing too, like someone needs a phone number, or help with their smart phone, or to look up something on the internet and they don’t have a computer, or they are short a quarter for their purchase and I have one in the “kitty”. Little things can really make someone’s day better and brighter. What are ways you’ve helped someone in a small way and it made you feel good inside? I’d love to hear about them in the comment section.
Everyday we make the choice to either be happy, or to be something else. Its easy to be depressed in the world we live in. There are so many people to compare ourselves to, and so many things others have that we don’t. Too many times, we get lost in our “have-nots” and don’t think about all the things we do have.
Health
Family
Friends
Knowledge
Wealth is nice, and truly I tell you that you are probably a lot wealthier than you believe. (If you don’t believe that, go visit any third world country.) But there are so many things that money can’t buy.
You can buy all types of medical procedures, but none of them can truly make you healthy.
You can buy people off with gifts to have friends and family want to be around you, but they will never truly love you just for those material things.
You can buy a college education, but more times than not, it won’t actually make you smart, but it will train you for a better paying job.
God gives us so many great gifts, and love is at the top of that list. God’s love is what truly makes your heart beat in your chest, and your brain think in your head. God’s love is contagious, and when it seeps from your pores, it pours out into others. Do you know anyone who is truly infectious? Someone you just love to talk to because they always seem happy, and make you feel happy too? They always have a positive outlook and always seem to lift everyone up?
That’s who we should strive to be, infectious spreaders of God’s love! It takes some practice, but feeling grateful for everything you have is the first step. Always think about what you do have, not what you don’t have. Grateful people tend to get more of the good things, because they rejoice in God’s grace and mercy.
When you focus on good, you receive good.
When you focus on bad, well, most times you receive bad.
God knows what you desire long before you do. Focus on gratefulness, and let God do the rest.
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. <Biblegateway.com>
How to be Right
“I will never eat meat again.” I think this is probably one of those passages of the Bible that we read, then wrinkle our forehead in confusion, and then just dismiss. Why would Paul say he’s not going to eat meat? Is it bad to eat meat? It’s not bad to eat meat.
One of the things I really like, is being right. I study and read and educate myself, and in an argument, I really like to be right. I think I can say that most of us feel this way. Being right feels good, it feels smart, and being wrong feels terrible.
This passage of the Bible tells us that it’s more important to love others, than it is to be right. Paul is talking about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols. This meat is then eaten by the pagans, in expectations of receiving some sort of blessing from their false god. At the time of this letter to the Corinthians, most of that region was in a famine, there wasn’t much food to go around. Plus, most of the Christians there were converts to Christianity. They had been brought up worshipping idols, but had received salvation by accepting Jesus as their savior. They are now children of God. Some of them thought it was wrong to eat this meat, and some thought it was ok. The ones who approve of eating the meat know that only God is God, there is no other god, and therefore this meat has been sacrificed to nothing. There’s no harm in eating it, because there is no other god. The ones who disapprove think that eating the meat shows some allegiance to these false gods, these idols.
Paul basically says that its true, you can eat the meat, it doesn’t matter. But here’s where it gets sticky. So you, in your knowledge of God, go and eat the meat. You know its ok because there’s no one else but God, eating the meat has no connections to any idols for you. But if someone with a weaker faith than you sees you eat the meat, and they are confused and eat the meat too, even though they believe it does have connections to the idol, then you have made them stumble in their faith. You pulled them into sin because they don’t have a mature faith yet. They are still learning and still studying. You know the truth, but they don’t understand it yet.
It says knowledge puffs us up, but love builds us up. We think we are better than others because we know so much. In this letter, Paul is saying that its good to have knowledge, but its better to help your fellow Christian follow God than to be legally right and cause them to stumble. If you have a friend who is a recovering alcoholic, then you shouldn’t drink alcohol when they visit you. You wouldn’t want to tempt them back into addiction. There’s nothing wrong with you having a drink, but to be a supportive friend, it’s a good idea to abstain while this friend is with you. And in this same example, Paul says that if you have a friend who doesn’t want to eat this sacrificed meat, you shouldn’t try to push them into doing it. They feel that it’s wrong, and so to them, it is. Legally by God’s laws, you are right. You can eat whatever you want, but they haven’t gotten there yet, so don’t push them in the wrong direction.
Those of us who do study the Bible to become more knowledgeable are actually in a dangerous position. We know what God did for us by putting Jesus on the cross. We know that there is nothing we can do that hasn’t already been forgiven. We know that once we accept God, we can never lose our salvation. God made us free from sin on that cross. Jesus took every sin ever committed, and every sin that would ever be committed and he bore that heavy weight on the cross. He died one time for all sin, and in his sacrifice, made us one with God. He freed us from the slavery of sin. He freed us from death. We have God in us.
But there are those people who don’t understand the amazing thing God did for us. They think that they are bad people, they are sinful people, and they have to work hard to get into heaven. There are people who are following all the Jewish laws trying to be good enough to get into heaven. There are people who condemn others who are different from them, trying to make others follow these laws as well. I know that there is nothing I can do that will make God love me any more than He already does. I can’t win His affection by being good because I already have it. Once Jesus died for our sin, He took all that away, and made us new creations in Himself. He won’t ever stop loving you, and once you give Him your life, you can’t take it back.
But having this knowledge, I need to share it and to be a good example to those around me. I need to help others see how good God is so they too can share in His love. Once you have truly experienced the freedom and peace and joy of God’s love, you want everyone to experience it! It a joy you can’t contain! But not everyone is there yet. And for the weak in faith, if they see you doing something they thing is wrong, they might do it too. You may know it’s not a sin, and it’s not a sin for you. But if they think it’s wrong and do it anyway because you did it, then you have helped them stumble. Stumbling takes us farther away from God. And if we cause people to stumble, then we aren’t loving people the way God intends for us. We aren’t loving people the way we need to in order to draw them into the family of God.
Knowledge is a great thing to have, and the more you know the better. But another thing about knowledge is the potential for it to make you prideful. If you keep reading in 1 Corinthians, you get to chapter 13, one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible. The second verse says “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” You could actually be the smartest person in the world, being able to read the Bible in every one of its original languages, and be able to interpret dreams, and heal people with your faith, and perform miracles. But if you don’t have love in your heart for your fellow man, you have nothing. All those amazing things are for nothing. Without love, we are nothing. God is love. Without love, we are nothing. Without God we are nothing.
So instead of being right, or prideful, or getting angry at people who “just don’t get it”, we all need to take a step back, and love like God does. In spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our differences in theology, in spite of our pride and anger and self-righteousness, we need to love and have love for those around us, no matter what they believe. For then, we will have love, and love is everything.
I love animals, so it makes sense that I have a few pets. A part of owning pets is the veterinarian. I have been very lucky to find two wonderful vets to help take care of my beautiful companions. One of my friends is a 14 year old cat named Dude. Dude has a thyroid problem and has to take a pill every day.
If you’ve ever needed to give a pill to a cat, you may know my struggle. He hates them, and seems to be able to find the pill in anything I put it in, rejecting it and leaving it laying on the floor. I have tried everything from peanut butter (which works great for the dogs) to butter, cheese, and cat food treats. He always spits it out. But then I found:
PROSCIUTTO
Prosciutto is a dry cured ham sliced very thinly and is popular in Italian cuisine. Yes, its a bit spendy sometimes, but so are vet bills. I take a piece of prosciutto big enough to wrap the pill in twice over, and Dude eats it every time. When I open the bottle of pills, he now comes running, eager for his “treat”. He used to run and hide.
I know this post may seem trivial, but some of the little things in life are the thing that cause us stress. I used to spend up to 20 minutes trying to get this cat to take the pill, chasing it around the house, and sometimes getting scratched as I tried to make him eat it. Now it takes 2 minutes, no one gets hurt, and he enjoys his treat.
Its the simple things in life that make me smile. And the prosciutto tastes great wrapped around a piece of fresh mozzarella too.
A lot of people aspire to lose weight, or exercise more, or eat better. It seems like it is usually health related, either mental health or physical health. But the thing with resolutions is: most people break them and then just give up.
If you want to be healthier, there are lots of ways to do this. But the number one way to be healthier is to eat healthy food. You are what you eat, and if you eat a bunch of junk, well, you get the picture. The easiest way to eat healthier is to start at the grocery store. If you don’t buy junk food, it has no way of getting into your house!! When you have healthy food in your house, that’s generally what you will eat if you’re hungry. (But ALWAYS read the label on what you are buying. If you can’t pronounce the ingredient, you probably don’t want to eat it.)
What about sleep? Do you get at least 7 hours of sleep a night? Do you meditate? Do you read before bed? New science discoveries tells us not to use a light emitting device to read from before you go to sleep. But reading a paper-paged book can help ease your mind.
Are you able to manage your stress level? (If you do, please tell me how. )
Are you trying to be more organized? More diligent about your financial situation? Or do you want to stop a habit or addiction you have? What is it that you want to do to make a better life for yourself?
We don’t need to make resolutions. We don’t need to broadcast anything to the world. We can make one better decision at a time, and that will be better than any resolution. Each good decision we make brings us one step closer to the next better decision. And once we start making better decisions every time, we truly become better people. But if you mess up and make a bad decision, remember: don’t cry over spilled milk. I love that old saying. Don’t freak out and stress out about it because there’s nothing you can do to change it. Clean it up, and be more careful next time. We all make mistakes, its part of being human. But by making these better decisions, we’ll make less mistakes and we’ll be happier, healthier people all year, not just the first week of January.
Ramblings 