Category Archives: Inspiration

Playing Possum

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back, beloveds! I trust you had a good week off. We enjoyed our family day weekend away, despite some glitches – but those are stories for another day. I am home again and working on this post after being outside cleaning up the bunnies. It is a beautiful day… warmer than most spring days and it’s still February! Last year this time, the hubby was complaining about the freezing wind and walking the dog in two feet of snow! We are certainly seeing the effects of global warming here.

Speaking of global warming, a new creature has been making its way north and is being spotted more and more in southern Ontario: The Virginia Possum. Technically “opossum” (possum is the nickname for the Australian marsupial cousins). And if you saw my stories a little while ago, you’ll know that one of then has been frequenting our yard!! At first, there were strange tracks about. I was calling it a fat squirrel… but they didn’t hop like a squirrel, and no, not a bunny either. These tracks had big feet/claws like a raccoon, but not spaced that big. A mystery. Then the dogs (Reese and our furry “granddog”) noticed it in the treeline. Not an escape bunny… but the visiting possum! After being terrorized by two nosy doggies, and a collection of curious onlookers trying to get a picture of it in the dark, I heard it wandered off into our woods. So far, it is yet to be seen again, but I am hoping the nocturnal creature is sneaking snacks from our bird feeders at dusk and dawn.

Mystery Tracks

Why, do you ask, do I want this ugly little guy hanging around when it is very apt to eat my impending chicks? Well, apparently they are the clean up crew and eat all kinds of other junk too! Ticks and nasty bugs for one. Lyme disease producing ticks can be eliminated by one opossum at a rate of 4000 a week! Bring it on! Apparently, they are a very low rabies risk and will kill venomous snakes too! They will eat just about anything, including bones, and apparently are less destructive than raccoons, so our little visitor can hang out in the woods near our house as a welcomed guest. Just stay out of the hen house, okay?

Still, these little creatures haven’t totally adapted to our Canadian winters quite yet. Their little toes and tails are naked, and therefore prone to frostbite. We had a sickly one in the city, living under our shed, and it was a sad looking thing. Ugly as sin. Rodents of unusual size, indeed. (Even though they are marsupials not rodents!) And so I muse….

How good are you at adapting? Are you feeling shunned because you’re not as “cute” as others, even though you have plenty to offer? Do you play dead when approached or threatened? As an introvert trying to blend in to a new environment, I’m feeling quite possum-ish these days. Sharing our faith is intimidating. Building community and walking alongside others takes some confidence. We can’t “play dead” like the opossum when threatened by views that counter our own. Jesus didn’t back down from a fight. He was immune to the venomous culture infiltrating His neighbourhood, and chose to fight back and confront, taking on the disease producing pests of His day. Do we do the same?

Possums look threatening. All teeth and claws and naked, ratty tails. Yet, they stay in the shadows most of the time cleaning up the garbage. They are not destructive either; they don’t chew and prefer already dug dens versus your attic or garage. They try and live at peace with others and just go about their business quietly. A lesson we can also take. How many times have we tried to chew a hole in someone else’s argument, when the simplest way to be welcomed is when space becomes available? Our good looks may not get us anywhere. Peaceful discussion may be the key to building lasting and rewarding friendships.

Life is hard, isn’t it? No one told us it was supposed to be easy. Often we are vulnerable and naked, out standing in the harsh elements getting frostbitten. Yet, with God’s help, we can adapt and play vital roles in even new environments! We can take advantage of what’s been offered to us, and peacefully approach life, doing good and cleaning up the bad. Even when threatened, we can still “play possum” and wait for the opportunity to escape unscathed. Good looks and flashy appearances aren’t always the ticket. Sometimes we just have to hang around in the shadows and be part of the clean up crew.

Seeing Red

Posted on by
1

Every year the kids go on a Christmas shopping spree at Walmart… sometimes using our own money to buy us gifts. Seems counter-active, I know, but whatever. Usually we end up with something they want. This year, as I was releasing them to the abyss of the super centre, I pointed out the Christmas boxes of amaryllises. Those seasonal bulbs all contained in a little kit, stacked up eyeball level high in the aisle next to the check outs. ”Mom might like one of these” I suggested, with a wink and a nod. It was a cheap gift — and so there it was Christmas morning.

Excited, that my own money was actually used to purchase something I wanted, I plunged the sad looking bulb into its pot and emptied the bagged soil; lovingly tucking it in with hopes it might do something. I watered it through the season and all of a sudden it sprang to life one day! Not one, but two beautiful blooms! A deep, Christmas red with even darker, wine coloured highlights. It made me smile. I’m not sure how long it will last, but the flower made me happy in the dark of wintery January. Now that February has rolled around, flowers, hearts and the colour red has come forward once more. And it has me musing again.

February is my “blog-aversary” and it has been a long journey, this mittonmusings.com. I haven’t gone viral, I barely have a couple hundred followers, and as much as some of my writing has improved, we plod onward with little recognition. That’s okay. Perhaps it’s as much of a journal for me as it is a quick read for my beloved readers. Back to red. I’m reminded of our colouring party… which seems like barely a blink ago, but we explored the symbolism in the Bible of colours way back in 2020!! I invite you to go back and dive in. The post about red is here. I must say, I was on fire then… lots of research went into that endeavour. Huh. Maybe I should host another “theme” series. Whattya think? Perhaps I’ll do a post over on Instagram to see what ya’ll might like.

This week the “red” was thick and dark for me. As an introvert, adjusting to a new city has been difficult for me. I’m trying to do my best to be friendly and courteous, but it’s been really tough to cut through that thick skin of well established groups and culture of “small town”. My heart has been slashed a few times and I’m trying to keep from bleeding out. I’ve been trying to mull it over in my mind. Trying to dig deeper. Think. 

A friend (a good friend with whom I have history with) made it simple. All of us are broken. Some of us must balance our own need for connection with the brokenness of others. Until we are able to level the playing field and realize we are all in the same boat, it’s difficult to build bridges. We need to have shared experiences to connect. Only when we break through the surface do we all bleed red. Which is kind of cool to think that in Christian circles, we talk about how Jesus’ blood covers our sins and cleanses us. Bloodshed allows us to be all put on the same playing field. It was necessary. Sacrifice is required. Deep and painful and rich. Like the colour of red I’ve been seeing this week on my windowsill. Oh, God is good at visual reminders!

My blooming reminder!

So, my little quip this week is not full of research and facts, but more of a journal-to-myself-with -an-audience-on-the-internet post. Seeing red is not always angry. Perhaps, it may mean the exact opposite. Thanks, kids, for the gift that keeps on giving.

 

Book Review: The Hiding Place

Posted on by
1

As we start off another year, it’s about time for another book review! This time it is a classic… although I admit to never reading it before now! The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is now in print for its 35th anniversary! Can you believe it?! Obviously a time tested biography, Ten Boom’s heroic story will live on for many more years. I was graciously donated tickets to go and see the “film version” of a play depicting the story before I actually delved in to the book, and despite what I warn my children, the movie version actually helped me “put a face” to the beloved characters. There are a lot of names. There’s a dash of Dutch references and historical ideas that need to get all sorted out in your reading of the book, so the film helped me, personally, with the history and politics (which I’m not so good at!)

Let’s start from the beginning. In case you have not heard about Ms. Ten Boom, she is a real life concentration camp survivor who, along with her father, sister and other family members, hid Jewish victims of war in a secret room in her Holland home. They were a vital part of World War II’s secret underground. The book reads like an adventure novel: twisting and turning, flashing back to Corrie’s childhood love interest and family matters growing up, then inching its way into her harrowing tale of death and abuse in Germany’s concentration camps for “untold criminal offenses”. All the mean while maintaining the family’s unwavering faith in God and His love for all humanity.

I recently changed the living room curtains in our old farmhouse from a modern print, to lace. The family hates them. ”They look like old lady’s nightgowns” they say. Perfectly suited to a century home where old ladies lived, I think. 

Doesn’t she look like she would love lace curtains?!

I picture Ms. Corrie Ten Boom when I think of that old lady. Not that she was old when her story begins to unfold. The timeline in the book tells me Corrie becomes the first licensed woman watchmaker in 1924. It’s about this time that the book describes her sister, Betsie, taking over the “housekeeping” and her love of tulips and lace and all things pretty and feminine. Perhaps Betsie would have appreciated my light and airy curtains that make everything “a little brighter”.

And so the tale of Corrie and her “sickly” sister shines with the faith of their father. Practiced and wise watchmaker, Caspar, who invests in his children through the scriptures with readings and worship each day around the family table. The love for humanity oozes out of the memoir. Still, Corrie is honest about her doubts, her fears, and her lack of fashion sense. A girl after my own heart, Corrie. A girl after my own heart.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but the resounding theme of God’s miraculous way shining through in a period of human history that was so dark, is definitely the focus of the story. Like the Hiding Place in the upper room itself, God’s unwavering omnipresence is always there… even when we don’t think it is. The book begins with Corrie’s war journey, but ends with her evangelistic journey, as she begins to share her faith with others. She tells her story and shares her faith as a testament to her family’s legacy. The ending is gut wrenching, and I couldn’t help but think how evil our world has become. Yet, God is bigger still.

I shouldn’t have, but I marveled at how much Corrie “got away with”: a hidden Bible, a smuggled sweater, how many hidden actual people in a secret room?! Was she allowed to “lie” in order to hide a bigger truth? It, again, reminds me God is bigger. And He’s in charge. What’s a world war to the Creator of the universe? Mere humans with an evil agenda? God’s got that, too. I like how one reviewer put it: ”…The Hiding Place, repackaged for a new generation of readers, continues to declare that God’s love will overcome, heal, and restore.” And He does it in secret ways that make us wonder “How did that happen?”

And so the biography, some thirty five plus years old now, is one still so relevant for today’s society. A society still filled with hate and destruction, but managed by a still faithful and all-knowing God. I’m encouraged by stories like these. I am reminded of the past in tangible things like the watchmaker’s watch, or my lace curtains. I am strengthened and encouraged for the future, because I know, like Corrie, her sister, Betsie, and those she saved, that God’s love is evident, even if it’s hidden in a hiding place.

I hope you, too, can be encouraged through stories like this classic. And go with peace this week, my beloved, knowing God still sees us in the Hiding Place.