Remembering That Safe Is Often Boring

"If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land..."   ---Isaia 1:19

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Back in 2019 I took my friend, Iris, to my cafe around the corner. I can't recall--did I tell you already? We'd not seen each other in nearly 20 years (tsk tsk) and we had a purely delightful conversation.

Then after winter (neither of us drives in the snow) just as I considered asking Iris out to the cafe again, 2020 and Covid happened. Sigh.

So one year later Iris and I, via messenger, chatted about getting together. This time she wanted to take me to her favorite bakery/restaurant in her town.

Well--

Iris lives 20 miles away.

I'd not driven alone that far in probably 12 years. (Wow, right?)

Tom said imagining me driving there made him nervous.

I never ask the GPS lady for help. She talks too much.

I don't carry a cell phone.

The weather turned COLD. Rainy, windy, 40 degrees(!)

I wasn't sure how to turn on the car's heater. Or the radio, even.

Now, all week I could've made myself bonkers with reasoning and excuses. Yet instead? I felt incredible peace. 

God wanted me to go, so that settled it. (Ever tried to change God's mind? Never works.)

So I went. Drove most of those 20 miles through the countryside near our old farm, remembered much, found a perfect setting for the windshield wipers, left the radio off (lest I push an ejection seat button, instead. Oh, these newer complicated cars, right?). All those miles I chatted aloud with God and myself, even.  シ

And Iris's and my lunch? Perfection. Everything: homemade meatloaf, conversation, ambiance, not being required to wear masks. Just right, all of it. What a blessing.

Well, on the way home (still raining) I got brave and poked what I thought was the radio. It was! Tom had set it to the most perfect station: mellow 70's stuff. Then as I neared home, oh my, Dance With Me began playing.

Wow. Tears came to my eyes. I love that song! Used to turn the radio volume up at age 16 each time it played. And oh, immediately I knew God had arranged that radio song just for me. My gift for obediently stepping outside my safe comfort zone.

Thank-you, God, for the perfect present. Always, I'll remember that one.

"But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."   --- John 14:31

The afterward of obedience is almost always remarkable.

More than ever I'll be wary of anyone, especially the government, telling me they just want me to be safe. God would prefer I be obedient to Him, even at the cost, the risk, of putting others first.

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Oh, and hooray! No longer are we required to wear a mask at my local cafe while ordering.

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 Movies we've enjoyed (I may have already shared a couple. Kinda losing track here.)--

Coffee Shop

Scents and Sensibility

Tooth  Fairy  (If you're in the mood for something light-hearted, silly, but still with warm, teachable moments.)

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Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

Knowing When To Say When? It Can Release Happiness.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”   ---Hebrews 13:5

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(Note: if Home is only 'a place to hang your hat,' you may not understand this post, the intensity we decorators/nesters-at-heart feel.)

So last week a friend wrote that she hoped I would make peace with my house.

I thought, "Wow! That was so two years ago. I guess she missed my blog posts about acceptance."  シ

But yeah, I spent some years becoming grateful for Hobbit Cottage--and I am (now), even though it's in no way my dream house. No. Way. My. Dream. House. 

I'll not live in that one until Heaven. 

And you know? When I finally accepted that fact, God gave me a gift of patience to wait--and--without being all cranky in the meantime. heh.

What also helped: I stopped watching HGTV (for immorality reasons) and wow. That's when I ceased wishing for a new house. Yep, about that exact time. All those houses, all that decorating--gone.

(Weird note: Earlier I'd given-up viewing Home Town. Why? During the reveals, Erin's rooms made me wild with discontentment. I'd cry, even, because gorgeous rooms like hers will never belong to me upon Earth. And yes, in this case, I can say never. Sometimes you just know.)

My house envy also disappeared when I stopped daily scrolling down local real estate online. I mean, why welcome temptation and frustration into my heart? (Toward the end I had no peace while viewing houses, but still I did it--until I told myself to knock it off.)

And then Tom and I, now in our 60's, began slowing waaaay down and suddenly our small, easy-to-clean rooms felt gift-like. Just considering moving exhausted us! Oh, someday we'll likely move into an assisted-living/townhouse/whatever type place, but that'll be it. The last place. (Already we're praying we'll survive that move.)  ツ

So perhaps you noticed: it's been a process. Rarely do any good, necessary changes in our lives happen in one day. This releasing of my dream house wishes, this acceptance that some things just are the way they are: it's required process. Experience. Time.

But anyway, I'm grateful that we took advantage of the earlier house-buying, moving, traveling, farming seasons of our lives. That we didn't procrastinate them until they became impossible.

And as I've mentioned before, our bucket lists stand nearly empty. What remarkable decades, seasons, God gave us and still is, these different, but still special later years.

You can color us extremely thankful. Indeed.

"In a sense, contentment is the absence of worry—whether that be about who we are, what we have or don't have, or what our condition is in life. Many people struggle to be content. Human nature tends toward discontentment, but the Bible teaches us that we are to be content with what we have ( Hebrews 13:5 ). Contentment does not mean we cannot desire something or wish for a change in our life circumstances, but it means that we have learned to be satisfied with what we have in the present."   ---copied

Often we won't feel differently until after we behave differently.

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What I'm reading lately? Beverly Cleary's Ramona books. It had been a few years and oh, that Ramona!  She makes this 2021 world a sweeter place.  ツ

In case you have extra time, here's a post I wrote years ago about a poignant chapter from the book, Ramona's World.

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Yes.

Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

Wondering How Many Opportunities I've Skipped

"So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone... make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind."   ---Galations 6:10, Philippians 2:2

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So, while gathering my bookbag items at the cafe, I spied a team of (semi-pro?) baseball players in uniform boarding a bus in the hotel's parking lot.

While thanking Amy for my delicious breakfast, I noticed two players walking toward the cafe. Though they were in the street's middle by the time I left, still, I wondered if I should hold the door open for them.

People in our area of New York often hold doors open--it's a thing. Blew us away when we moved here in '93. But this time I didn't. Sigh.

Yet what if I had? What if the baseball players were meant to go home and mention, "And in ______, a woman held the cafe door open for us while we were still in the street! What a nice town."

(My visiting brother-in-law experienced a similar thing when he walked with Naomi in the 90's to a nearby convenience store. He told the story twice, even.)

Man, sometimes I'm terrible with those types of split-second decisions. Oh, it's feasible to learn and do better the next time, yes. But often later instances are 'tweaked' from earlier ones so it's possible to blow those, also, without that moment-by-moment reliance upon the Holy Spirit.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Anyway, this 'baseball guys thing' got me thinking: how many other God-sent opportunities have I skipped? Chickened out of? Ignored? 

I've heard Heaven has books about our lives so now I'm wondering something. What if when I read mine, a 'stats' chapter might, oh dear, resemble this:

God gave Debra 368 opportunities to hold the door open for folks. She used just 157 of them.

Debra was given 245 opportunities to express condolences. She used 129. 

She had opportunity to give $4,961 in 'service tips'. She gave $2,704.

God asked Debra to voice thank-you's, congratulations and happy birthday wishes a total of 3,291 times. She expressed them 1,832 times.

Gulp.

Oh don't worry: I'll not allow all this to turn into condemnation. But conviction? Yes, indeed.

I welcome conviction, actually, no matter what form in which it arrives, even via a couple baseball players crossing the street on a memorable springtime morning in May.

"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"   --- Matthew 7:16

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Every once in awhile Joyce Meyer Ministries sends us a gift out of the blue. I especially love this latest one for it's such a wonderful daily reminder:

                     "Enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going."   --- Joyce Meyer

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                    I so love tiny seedlings. They feel like plant babies. 

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Tom and I found another special movie we can recommend. Noelle (not the Disney one). Really special with messages about forgiveness and also following what God has called you specifically to do.

And has anyone else ever so resembled Robert Redford (besides Robert Redford)?  ツ

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Oh! And Naomi is camping this week (and next) in NY's southern tier so any prayers for her would be appreciated. Thanks!

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         (Had to smile... thanks for sharing this at Facebook, Tracy!)

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Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

May This And That

1.) So. For 3 (4?) months our kitchen had many 'traffic jams' (shall we say). What with Tom's new healthier lifestyle (and creating yicky collagen potions, etc.) it seemed always he stood where I needed to and vice versa.

Maybe it's different at your house, but here? Solutions come slowly to our aging brains and I'm always choosing to forgive myself for that rather than remain frustrated.

Anyway, finally I thought to place Tom's most-used gadgets/groceries on one side of the kitchen and all of mine on the other.

Whew. No more traffic jams and kitchen peace is restored.

2.) Oh! Are you familiar with the Five Minute Crafts channel over at Youtube? The crafts I like best are the household problem-solving ones. Check them out! (They're also available at Roku. See below.)

Note: Young folks make these videos and oh wow! Often my brain can barely keep up.

3.) Upstairs, quite close to my dearly-loved closet room in fact, sits Daniel The Cat's two litter boxes.

Now, does that post a, er, smelly problem? Nope! Not at all, because for years I've used this miracle litter which smells like, well, nothing.

Highly, highly recommended for my fellow feline lovers. Lasts for ages (I use one-half of a 7 lb. bag in each litter box) and isn't expensive.

4.) Gee, the beginnings of hyper-inflation, right? Makes me grateful that I did that major stock-up last year. Now I just need a few items to add to my food/supplies collection in order to feel sufficiently prepared.

(And of course, as always, I hope you are into prepping ahead for your family's future needs. While you still can.)

5.) 

6.) Rather than just watching Leave It To Beaver on the Roku channel, I finally checked-out what else they offer. Wow. Paradise for the nostalgic-tv-series-minded amongst us!

Also, you can watch online free(!) Just use that Roku link, above, and click on 'watch online' or 'free movies and tv'. Not everything will be available this way, ok, but it's a start if you're without the Roku

device/channel/app.

Here's just a sampling of what's available:

Touched By An Angel

Hart to Hart

Magnum P.I.

The Facts of Life

The Rockford Files

The Rifleman

Highway To Heaven

Petticoat Junction

Coach

The Real McCoys

Crossing Jordan

Heartland

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

The Tonight Show (with Johnny Carson)

Beverly Hillbillies

Alias (not nostalgic, but we enjoy it)

Sue Thomas F.B.I.

Unsolved Mysteries

Five-Minute Crafts

... plus movies and other tv series. But be forewarned: there are commercial breaks, the can't-be-forwarded  type. ツ

7.) Our cafe around the corner? Lately Amy often posts at Facebook that she's sold all the scones or muffins or breakfast sandwiches. Hooray! More answers to years of prayer and especially wonderful to see in 2021.

Sowing seeds (money, prayer, time) into local eateries is one of Tom's and my favorite ways to obey God. No really, a blessing all-around!

8.) Truly, we get to know ourselves better when we're honest. heh. :

9.) Remember how the electricians left that big swath of dirt across our backyard lawn? Well, it's still there. 

But! Somehow, many bricks were leftover (long story) so I placed them atop a folded tarp behind our small lilac bush and now, oh my. That dead space for weeds is gone. I can place 10+ garden pots upon the bricks in that prime sunny real estate--hooray!

Truly it's the little things, right? (I would show you a picture, but the bricks (and pots) are still sitting wonky, so I can't take a picture of that, right?).  ツ So here's my Herb and Etc. Garden out front:

But anyway, the lesson is this: never give-up on finding solutions to make your life easier/more productive/peaceful. Most always they're there, but just hard--not impossible--to find!

10.)

 

Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

When Your Life Doesn't Look Like Others'

" And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority...but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."   ---Colossians 2:10, 2 Corinthians 10:12

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So on Mother's Day Naomi stepped from her van/home out front bearing gifts for me and she made us dinner. We watched Youtube clips of Impractical Jokers (don't view these unless you know the Naomi-approved-for-parents ones. heh.) and then a movie.

The evening? Wonderful.

Now, most of Tom's and my friends have a 'quiver-full' of kids, with spouses (who live in houses) and nearly all have grandchildren. Our friends have dogs. Larger, more expensive homes. Two cars.

Many travel, take vacations (in non-pandemic years) to cool, fun places. Some ride bikes together, jog, walk or camp. Many do outdoor barbeques and backyard parties. Some shop together and attend crowded street festivals, concerts and fireworks displays.

Basically, Tom and I have (or do) none of that.

But you know? He and I are the happiest, most contented couple we know. And for me, it's not about possesions, activities or even a necessity of certain relationships. But rather--

When we're living the way God wants, our lives will appear unique because He designed us all differently. We can be fulfilled even while living like no one else because true fulfillment comes only from knowing God.

Loving God. Obeying Him, His Word. Not comparing ourselves with others. These will bring us all incredible inner peace even if our outer world just doesn't quite match up with others'.

                                     My Prayer Garden. Early Spring.

" ... for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."   ---Philippians 4:11

"Be a thankful person. Take inventory each day of what you have instead of counting up all the things that you have not. Meditate on what God has done in your life instead of what you are still waiting on Him to do.

Enjoy where you are on the way to where you're going."   ---Joyce Meyer

Of course, you sweet grandmas might highly doubt that I'm perfectly contented knowing I'll (most likely) never have grandchildren. But you'll just have to trust me on this one.  ツ

I hope your Mother's Day was wonderful!

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Yikes! On Friday while eating lunch, Tom and I heard a huge Boom! outside. We ran to the window and saw white smoke coming from Mike's garage so I went outside, as did our other neighbors (and Naomi) and we all tried to guess what had happened.

Soon a friend of Mike's came out, apologized and said not to worry, it was just a gas leak.

Oh dear. #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmm

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Once again I must recommend Recollection Road videos at Youtube. They're so soothing and they recall a world much more familiar to many of us. 

Wave if you see me over in that kinder world.

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"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"   ---Isaiah 26:3

Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

Heaven On My Mind

"For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."   ---Galations 6:8

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Gee, Heaven's floating around my mind lately.

Oh, but not for the reason you may suppose, you know, because Life down here's gone all complicated and messy so Jesus-please-beam-me-up-before-this-sorry-stuff-grows-worse.

No, not that one. He planned more for me to do here--I know this.

Instead, it's because I'm planting my garden seeds. Lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and garlic cloves, also (each year I attempt something new. This spring it's garlic).

I wonder while poking each seed into the soil, "Am I planting all the seeds God intended these 62 years of mine? Which ones, which kindnesses, gifts and obediences did I skip? Which rewards in Heaven will I miss out on because I chose apathy and procrastination instead?"

With just one chance to live on Earth, I'm accruing a history I'll live with for all eternity. 

Yikes.

So today out there in my garden beds, I'll ask God to show me which other types of seeds He intended me to sow, as in, the life-sharing ones for others. "Give me the whole long list," I'll say. I'll even ask Him to help me release unsurrendered areas like complaining, worrying and wasting time, all which keep me from actively planting.

And then I'll ask Him to daily pour upon me all the boldness, strength and creativity I'll need to complete His specific journey for me. I cannot walk this out alone. I shudder to contemplate that, even.

My visit to Earth is a short one! But eternity? That's forever (literally) and that's how long I'll be living with what I did down here with all He gave me.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." ---Mathew 6:19-21

"And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”    ---Mark 4:8

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Lately I'm keeping a running Gratitude List in my mind and that helps center me in a 'perfect peace mode' even while hearing talk about possible upcoming hyper inflation.

Here's what Glen Beck has to say about the hyper inflation he believes is coming. (I'm letting it simply inspire me to check all my prepper lists twice so I can remain calm.) シ

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I enjoyed reading another of Ralph Moody's cousin's books:

The ol' rhodie bush was especially prolific this year.

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"Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."   ---Luke 12:33,34

Please remember: My posts are ALWAYS about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

2020: The Lost Year?

"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."   ---John 16:13

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So at the cafe last week, some ladies chatted about the ridiculousness of 2020 and one ended the conversation with, "Not to mention I lost a year out of my life."

Oh dear! I hope you don't feel that way. For me, 2020 was valuable. More deeply, I understood what Joyce Meyer often says:

"We live Life forward, but we understand it backward."

2020 came along and suddenly I understood how the Holy Spirit--without ever using the word 'pandemic' (or 'plandemic', certainly)--warned me for whole decades to prepare for a 2020 shift in reality.

He'd nudged me to collect:

food, emergency supplies

books (comfort and instructional)

godly encouragers

accessible savings

prepper knowledge

garden seeds

gardening experience

vitamins, immune system boosters

housework lists

hair-cutting experience

a planned-out wardrobe

wisdom

-- and taught me to need Him far more than other people, even. Only God has never disappointed me, only to Him will I give 100% of my heart, emotions and mind.

Yep, that's controversial, but I know what (who) brings me these thousands of peaceful-heart days. It's that reliance upon Him, that needing Him more than anyone else.

The Bible said this:

"But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart."   ---John 2:24, 25

After a year like 2020? Oh Honey, I understand that on a deeper level, also. 

Pressure and stress! They yank out (for all to see) our growth and our stubborness to remain and suffer. Stress makes known how far we've veered from humility. Stress in 2020 showed us friends on our same page and those in a whole separate book. 

Stress reveals who and which beliefs we truly follow.

2020 to 2021! The learning, warning and reaping year. And although I've told you I know bright, godly happenings await ahead--what I don't know is how long we've got until they appear. How long before folks wake up, repent, warn others and live biblically so God can bless our land again.

But the remarkable 2020 lessons we learned and our wonderful Teacher, Himself--they will keep us strong, prepared and anticipatory. 

No matter what. That is, if we've learned our lessons well.

 "...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."   ---2 Chronicles 7:14

That wild 2020 year invited us to know God and ourselves better than ever.

The truth will set us free.

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More special movies Tom and I watched:

My Many Sons (a true story)

The Identical

The Dog Who Saved Summer (only if you're in the mood for something silly)  ツ

(If you've watched any of the films I've recommended this year, I'd love to hear what you thought about them!)

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"Sometimes God will put a Goliath in your life for you to find the David within you."   ---Matt Couch

Please remember: My posts are ALWAYS about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15