Author Archives: mittonmusings

About mittonmusings

A Canadian, lifestyle blog with an inspirational twist!

Chalking it Up

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Welcome back. I’ve been doing a little doodling this week. Okay, colouring. I guess I am just a kid at heart… back to the crayons. Actually, they were markers and coloured pencils. Are there any artists out there? Colouring is a great art form; some of us are better at it than others. I happened to pick up a beautiful set of pastel pencil crayons some time ago, thrifted, of course. And yet, I haven’t mastered the art of using them. And hence, this week’s muse: chalk. Pastels are a form of chalk.

Most of we’re probably exposed to blackboard chalk back in elementary school. Cleaning all those dusty brushes and hacking up a lung. Kids these days have it easy: their chalk is “dustless”. What am I saying? Whiteboards and computer screens have replaced all those items now. Chalkboards are reduced to upscale coffee cafes and artists who know how to use pastels. Technically the artist’s medium is not chalk (calcium carbonate) but a form of gypsum these days. Lucky for us, gypsum is less dusty.

Wanna delve into the technical? Here ya go: chalk and gypsum have both been mined since ancient times. Chalk has been found in cave paintings that date way back, while gypsum (calcium sulphate) has been used as a mortar for construction since, like, forever, and is even found in the Egyptian pyramids.

Similar and yet distinct, chalk is a base (an alkaline that neutralizes acids) that is composed of calcium and oxygen combined with carbon (CaCO3). At the same time, gypsum is a salt (the product of a base and acid reacting and both becoming neutralized), made up of calcium and oxygen combined with sulphur.

Both are believed to be formed in a similar fashion. Chalk is a limestone deposit created as plankton (tiny marine organisms) concentrate calcium in their bodies while living, then leach the calcium out after they die and settle onto ocean floors; over time, large deposits are formed, and as the seas recede, chalk “mountains” are built up for our collection.

Gypsum’s origins are similar, but in addition to being comprised of the calcium produced by the deaths of millions of plankton, gypsum also contains some of the salt left behind as the ocean evaporated. Salty chalk.

National Gypsum Mining

After quarrying, each material is crushed, ground, washed and sifted. With gypsum, it must also be dehydrated in a process that involves high temperatures to reduce its water content from nearly 21% to about 5-6%; for that non-dusty classroom chalk, the material is mixed, again, with water (and coloured pigments, if desired; note most common chalk is green nowadays) and to produce more exotic pastels like my thrifted treasure, pigments as well as clays or oils are also added. For the former, the chalk is baked, while for the latter, it is air-dried.

Brain hurting yet? Thanks to todayifoundout.com for all that info.

I love how God gives us renewable products for our use. Nature is cool. Who would have thought dead sea creatures could make art… or hold our houses together? He celebrates our creativity as His beloved creations! Who else can boast that our “creations” are creative??

Wanna hear one more cool fact about chalk? Apparently, around Christmas, there is a tradition known as “chalking the door” where marks are chalked across the door of a home as a reminder that the Wisemen came to visit and worship the young Jesus — and we should do likewise when we enter other people’s abodes. It’s placed on the door frames to remind those who enter, that our homes are places of spiritual growth, and dedication to faith, and that we should be a blessing to all who enter! Chalk that one up my friends!

Contrast and Kindness

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Life is full of contrasts. We start small and grow big. We are young and get old. We have good days and bad days. We are weak and we are strong. We feel sad and we feel glad. Days and nights pass into years and decades and we continue to go through moments of contrast. The dictionary describes contrast as “ being strikingly different” from something else. You can be in a state of contrast (noun) or in the middle of it (verb). Yep, life is definitely full of contrasts.

Have you been feeling it this week, my friend? I used to worry that if all was going well, it meant something bad was just creeping around the next corner. It’s easy to feel that way because often it happens just like that…. One day you’re smelling the roses and Boom! Thorns attack and the pain is felt strong and steady.

Recently, I read a little object lesson for kids about contrast. Think about cotton balls and stones. One is soft and fluffy… like puffy clouds in the sky. Rocks, on the other hand, are hard. Rocks are solid and full. You can”t stretch a stone like the fluffy clouds. Rocks sit. Now imagine I wound up and hit you with a handful of each. How would you feel? Now pretend the cotton balls are kind words and the rocks are unkind and mean words. Which hit harder?

It’s a simple object lesson – but effective for even us big kids. As we get older, we are not immune to the consequences of our words. We cannot excuse our verbal spewing because we are older or wiser. Hard and harsh words still land solidly on the ears of others… and they can hurt. Like rocks pelted in the playground.

In contrast, kind words are soft, soothing and tend to spread wider. When we build up one another in love and affirmation, it spreads beyond the first set of ears, like the fluffy clouds spreading across the blue sky.

So, even in this life full of contrasts, we must always remember to be kind. Our words are powerful and can have a “strikingly different” effect on those who hear them. It’s wise to “think before we speak”. I hope that my musings do that each week as I share words on a page. Now, go have a cotton ball snowball fight this week!

Map Musing

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Greetings beloveds! What have you been up to recently? Are you back to moving and shaking again? Have you been out and about? Perhaps even travelling again? It’s been on my mind and what I’ve been musing about this week. Okay, maybe not the travelling itself… but the mapping and planning. We’ve been driving around a lot lately … no big trips, but we are constantly plugging destinations into the ol’ Phone GPS. The “Global Positioning System” (yes, I had to look it up) contains 3 parts… the space system that uses something way out there to find your position in comparison to the whole world, the control system, that makes sense out of all that space place data, and then the user component (that’s you and me) who plug in what we want to know into our little personal maps. It’s a complex system but ever so helpful — until it’s not.

Have you ever entered an address only to “arrive at your destination” and not be where you wanted to be? It happened to us once across the border. Somehow we got led under a bridge underpass and down a dirt road to a dead-end stop next to a big chain link fence. Not the address we were hoping for. Or entered a setting with no tolls or highways and get wandering in circles because the most direct route was avoided? Or like me, with no data coverage and your GPS is useless because it is missing one of the “space” or “control” components? I know, I know, some days the old method of paper maps folded out on the roof of the car and highlighted or sharpie markered routes were easier and better. Or CAA “triptics”. Or what were those big yellow spiral-bound map books called that everyone had stashed in the sides of their car doors? Those were fun.

Cartography is generally considered to be the science and art of designing, constructing and producing maps. It includes almost every operation from original fieldwork to the final printing and marketing of maps.  I have visions of great pirates marking islands on ships as master seafarers of old. Or trailblazers traipsing through thick forests hacking away at overgrowth. Did you read my post about Dashrath Manijhi? He was a trailblazer. (Read about it here) I think Google does it now. Art or computer — it is for sure a needed skill. When they were younger, our kids loved to create and participate in scavenger hunts and treasure mapping. They even dabbled a little in geocaching and finding treasures hidden there by someone else. There is value in knowing about maps and how to get to where you need to be.

If you are like me, you like to know the route. You like to see what’s coming and when it’s coming. You want to be prepared for obstacles and time delays. You want to be in control of your final destination. You want to have a plan. We all know that that is not always the case. Space, controls, and often the end users invariably make mistakes or miss something. We enter bad data and get unfinished or incomplete results. Sometimes this means we miss the treasure at the end of the rainbow. Sometimes it means we have great adventures and discover new things. I suppose it depends on your perspective on the journey. The road less travelled, or the predictable and safe route?

Don’t you love it when there are clearly marked paths with signage and direction? We know that our Bible is God’s handbook in life. We understand that God has “given us the Way” through His scriptures, lessons and promises. We read verses about preparing a place for us and knowing the plans to prosper you and give hope to your future. If we look around we can also see the landmarks that God has placed along the path: a chance meeting here, a phone call there, a “circumstance” that leads us in one direction or another. We have to look for them as markers though. And sometimes we drive by too quickly to notice them.

How many times have I prayed for myself and others that God would show us a clear path, a distinct open or closed door, a sign to know which route is the best. Often I am out of range or have little data available on that life GPS… and I don’t get my controlled and direct route marked out in yellow highlighter. So I wait. And I try and look around and gather my bearings and read the signs as best I can. Then, the only way to know is to move forward and see where the path leads. A great adventure? Or a chain link fence under a concrete underpass? You can always re-calculate, re-calibrate and turn around. The final destination may just take a little longer. It’s worth the trip. Happy trails, friends!