"If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!"... Proverbs 24:10


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Lately I watch the doom and gloom finance reports on tv and I watch people reacting to those reports and I watch myself and I think of that verse, above.

Yet as Monk says, "Here's the thing:"

... God is like a teacher who stands in a classroom always available to teach whoever sits in the desks before Him.

The problem? Most of us are always late to that classroom. Or we choose to skip class and go to the beach, instead. All those waves, all that sun and sand and fun.


But this one thing I know--God spies what's ahead and He enjoys telling us secrets of success, ones which will enable us to step through the hard times, prepared and ready for them. And because everything is pretty opposite in His way of thinking, maybe that's when the prepared people get to go to the beach--during the difficult times when everyone else is wishing they'd attended class while the secrets were passed from desk to desk (and are now scrambling to borrow their notes).

There's a time for the beach and there's a time for the classroom and blessed is he who knows the difference.






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For a delightful post I discovered yesterday about using your imagination in hard times, go here.

"Timing is everything."

A huge special thanks to Laura for giving me the gift of a link to the perfect blog, the sort of blog I search for nearly every weekend.

Some of you, too, will love the 16-year-old Everly Pleasant. She and her sisters have this sort of Alcott sisters thing going on (perhaps without even trying) and Everly writes 1800's style with a 21st century twist. Hers is an old soul, my favorite type of soul, and I am beyond enchanted with her blog. Some of you will be, too--I could even name you by name...

(I read Everly's blog and poof! I am 16 once again, full of future dreams and ethereal thoughts and plans to read every lovely book ever written.)

Her little sister, Fairlight Crumb, has a dreamy photo blog and oh the peeks we get into their life and home and yard! Be sure to see her old-fashioned photos, especially.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy... And come away inspired to make your own blog a dreamier place to be.

This is our side yard and can't you just see me ice-skating out there? Inside my head I'm sailing gracefully along the curvatures of our frozen lakes, leaning in, then out, in, then out, my hair floating on a breeze, my white dress reflecting late afternoon sun.

But in reality? It would be more like swish, swish, trip, stumble, splat, rip my jeans. Swish, swish, trip, stumble, splat, rip my jeans.  ツ

My head finds it so hard to admit my body will turn half a century in less than two weeks. My head still believes I'm only 22.

And yet since we moved to this farm? My head sometimes sadly nods that, yes, 22 was long ago, far away and it is gone. Forever. At least for this body and at least for parts of my brain.

I forgot to tell you (or perhaps I've hesitated) that two months ago God put me on medical leave. No, really, He did. He said I needed a long rest because of all I've gone through since August of 2007, the short list being:

We put our house of 14 years up for sale.

My dad passed away.

We flew out to CA for my dad's memorial service (and I hate flying).

We sold our house.

Two months later (in the dead of winter) we moved into a tiny apartment.

Two months after that we decided to buy this farm.

Two months later we moved again and started a whole new life here which involved choices and changes we'd never dreamed of.

Again, that's the short list. And then recently there was the plane crash just miles from us and a few days later, my dear old friend of 30 years passed away.

I'm so glad that God knows the future and that I don't.

But back to my head. My head has been feeling its advanced years more than I care to confess since 2007. In my early married years we moved often and I could set up a whole house, repaint its walls and get it running smoothly with hardly an extra breath. But in this house? It's been a struggle for me to complete anything or to find places to put things or to finish hanging my paintings. There's still, nearly 9 months later, so much unfinished-ness.

I don't dare mention what stress has done to my memory.

And partly all that is the reason for this God-imposed medical leave. Man, instead of painting, papering, fixing and creating, He's made me rest, read, watch tv, pray and heal. There's been lots of healing and I've needed every golden drop.

I realize, of course, not everyone is able to take two months off and I also know that many are the people who have become like The Walking Wounded, never healing, only bleeding until they can bleed no more--then imagining themselves healed. We are surrounded by those.

But here is something else I know: whenever God is after us to take some down time, always He will provide a way to do that. He will slice open new paths and custom-make healing time for those He's certain need it. He has never delighted in His children walking through Life as Bleeding, Walking Wounded. 

No, He delights in providing help to anyone who is willing to let the wind whisk away their own agenda and instead, grab His arm the second He extends the invitation to health and healing His way, in His perfect timing. 

To wait for a better, more logical time is a huge mistake. There can be no better timing than His.

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"He makes a way where there is no way..."

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