Category Archives: Musings

I was Inspired by the Trees

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I was inspired last week. I came up with a great idea and got excited about it. Today, I am not so sure. Story of my life. This is our first spring on #itsnotta farm and I’ve already ordered my seeds for this year’s garden. I can handle that. What else happens in Canadian spring? Maple syrup. Nothing more Canadian than the sticky, sweet sap of a sugar maple wrapped up in a glass bottle with a custom sticker on it, right?! I was inspired last week. The previous owner left buckets and spigots and assured us there were trees in our forest patch. We went looking the other day. We have maples, yes, but do you think we know the first thing about gathering sap and tapping trees?! Google on the hubby’s phone and wikihow didn’t help much either. It’s early February. Days are warm and nights are cool. ”They” say the sap is running. Whoever “they” are. ”They” aren’t helping.

Photo by Matt Barnard on Pexels.com

I was inspired last week. I put out a plea to a local Facebook group for sap mentoring. I sent an email. I inspired someone else in the group to try syrup again this year! I have yet to have help. There’s still time, I tell myself. Just drill a few holes. Spend hours in front of a fire, boiling down sap (that apparently lines the walls in a gooey condensation). Use up firewood and propane. The results will be worth it. It can’t be that hard. I’m still inspired. 

Did you know that trees defy gravity? Huge, round maples, towering out of the ground in multilayered trunks and limbs cannot move, but they do defy gravity. Without boring ya’ll with the science behind tree sap, just know that due to a bunch of root pressure, certain temperatures, and the need for leaf food from root nourishment… sugary sap flows UP. Against the grain. Trees fight gravity and win. (If you really want to know all the gory, science-y details, here’s a good article to read: Maple Syrup Mechanics).

I am always amazed at how God has designed nature to defy the odds and win. Nature in its simplest form declares the Glory of God. Wholly and uniquely. Creativity in the max. I’m still inspired. Hands that flung stars into space, also created the mighty ant who carries up to 50 times its own body weight. Furthermore, so much of that creation was given to us to enjoy! The fruits of the vine. The sugars of the tree. The sun on our faces. The colours of the sky. We should all be inspired.

The crew has been learning to adjust to a new culture here. Things are slower. Things are both good and bad. Things are certainly different. We don’t know anyone. We have no roots here. We have very little history with the people we have met, and we are still trying to maneuver our way around without the comforts of “home”. Some days it feels like we are trying to defy the laws of gravity. Pushing upward in an attempt to feed our souls. Trying to fit in but not really knowing where we belong. We want the sweetness of real friendship but it’s just out of reach. Thus far. Like the maple trees, we need the right conditions to “get things flowing” so to speak. We have to keep trying. We have to be patient and kind and understanding. We hope that those around us do the same for us. 

If there is one thing we can learn from God’s creation it is that we can do hard things. We can be inspired to push onwards and upwards. A friend used to tell me that she could only love certain people because of an “extraterrestrial force”. She meant that only God could give her that unearthly dose of love for that person… she didn’t have it in her own heart. She couldn’t do it on her own. Inspiring. 

I’m still hoping we will tap some trees in our little woods. I’m still hoping we will not be disappointed in the effort and get a few bottles of syrup. I hope we will try to do hard things and be rewarded for our efforts. Because the results are sweet, aren’t they? I’m hoping we get some response to our cries for help. Maybe we have to bite the bullet and just drill a few holes and see what happens. That’s what Youtube is for, right? I’ll keep you posted on that adventure.

Photo by Marta Wave on Pexels.com

As to the rest — pray with us that we take inspiration from the trees and do hard things. We know God grants us the ability to do so. We must continue to plug on through the cold winter season, knowing that soon the spring will come and new life begins to literally flow in our veins. Then we will reap the sweet reward of our labours and enjoy the taste of lasting friendships and new beginnings. I am inspired once more.  

Footprints in the Snow

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Hello again, my beloveds! Sorry we missed you last week… we were recouping from a family wedding in chilly Minnesota! It was a whirlwind trip with weather to boot! Minus 35 with wind chills… but we were surrounded by warm hearts and warm hugs. (Not to mention a new baby to cuddle and a new bride to congratulate!) Still, I was happy to get back to “warm” Canada and a light dusting of snow. And if you’ve been following along on our Instagram stories, you’ll notice we had lots of visitors. The bird feeder has been well attended recently.

It has been fun to see the footprints in the snow. Unfortunately, the snow is now crunchy and I missed taking photos of all the little markings, but it’s what I have been musing about. Of course, in addition to my own, the dog’s five little beans have been all over the property! The squirrels have definitely been to and from the barn along the rim of the barn roof to their favourite pine trees… it’s been fun to see hops versus running lines. I swear I saw hooves near the coop once. Perhaps wishful thinking that deer have taken short-cuts through our woods. Luckily no fox or coyotes have left their mark.

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) tracks in fresh snow.

My favourite, however, have been the teeny tiny little three toed markings of the hopping songbirds. There are a mass of them under the bird feeders, of course, but a few distinct lines have been along my porch … more than likely for the citrus or suet crumbles left on the railings. They’re like a little stick road travelling along the patch of white that secretly disappears on dry land. Super cute. I wish I had my own photos to show you!

While we were away, the hubby did capture this photo in the deep snow of our airbnb! Bunnies! Not ours, but wild ones braving the Midwest freeze!

So what can we observe from the diversity of my little visitors and the marks they leave? First, I am struck by the differences. Thick hops, quick little lines of the squirrels and tiny birds. The dog prints are thick with pad and nail marks. The family boots leave their own treads in various sizes. I’m sure we’d find more if we were isolated on a trail somewhere. Each with their own unique story. Bunnies hopping from a safe shelter to find food. Birds lightly treading – nervously close to my front door. Deer taking a quick short cut. Bears? 

I’m reminded that even my own family have their unique identity. Not only evident by the shoes they wear, but also in the lives we lead. Where our shoes take us. We each have our own distinct story to tell. God has made each of us wholly unique — with a special plan for each of us. He has not given us a path to follow, but a wide open, snow-covered field to make our own marks in. Perhaps a prompting by the Holy Spirit leads us in a straight path to safe hiding or a bountiful bird feeder – amass with other fellow footprint makers. Sometimes we tread lightly, other times we leave a deep mark that makes a definite imprint for others to see. I marvel at it. Then, all too quickly the snow disappears and our “marks” are wiped out. This doesn’t mean we were not there, of course, it just means we’ve come by in secret. Carrying out the day to day without recognition. 

So next time you see fingerprints on the window, or footprints in the snow, or tire tracks in the spring mud, take heed, knowing that Someone sees, and He knows the path you are on, and is waiting at the end when the wind drives the snow away. Be blessed !

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Book Review: The Hiding Place

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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.