The Journey of Patience: Lessons from Maple Syrup

Whew! Where has the time gone? This weekend was fun… but it flew by! What did I do Saturday? Oh yeah… groceries, laundry. No time for clean up. Normal, everyday weekend things that simply eat up your time. Yet Sunday was funday! Which leads to this week’s muse. And it’s all about being patient. And it’s about that because I. am. not.

How are you in the patient department? Do you have endless amounts of time to spend waiting….

Spring gave us just a glimpse of warmer weather before winter reared it’s ugly head again… and I got excited. By excited, I mean I dreamt up 101 projects to do on #itsnotta farm. Most of which will not get done. Included in this list, was order baby chicks, and research a maple syrup evaporator. Those did get done. I started my seeds, too. I keep forgetting to check on them though… they likely need watering and bigger pots. Did you hear I ordered more baby chicks?! Right, back to maple syrup. If you recall, we made our first attempt at maple syrup tree tapping last year. We collected a whole whack of sap… and had one miserable boiling day… resulting in about 2 cups of syrup. (You can read about that sticky situation here). The rest of the sap has been sitting in my deep freeze for a year!

The “fancy” redneck evaporator!

So this year… I’m on it. We bought a “fancy” redneck (do those words even go together?!) barrel evaporator and Sunday planned to use the sap up from last year! It was a nice day as spring days go, so we invited the kids and chopped wood. Much to the hubby’s delight, the fire was roaring in said barrel and we were on our way! Syrup, here we come! Alas, we forgot how long sap takes to boil down. It takes a long time. Forever. Even with fancy redneck equipment.

We broke for dinner. Pots and pans were boiling and steaming and we were enjoying the grand baby, the somewhat sunny day, a glass of wine and the camaraderie of family. I waited for the sap to get to the desired “syrup” temperature. It smelled right. It looked the right colour. It tasted right. Still, it wasn’t thickening. Sigh. More waiting. Last year I missed the mark and we sugared out. This year, I don’t know. We bottled the liquid gold … but it’s runny.

So we come full circle, back to my thoughts about patience. My family always complains that I never preheat the oven. Ain’t nobody got time for that. My noodles are al dente. Always. “Just stick that there… it’ll be fine” I say. Have I no patience? It’s a fruit of the spirit, after all… it’s something I should strive for! Just slow down. Wait. It’s easier said than done. I want results!

Photo by Canan YAu015eAR on Pexels.com

(This is kinda how I felt waiting for things to boil down…)

Psalm 37:7 states, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” Am I rushed when it comes to waiting on God, too? I see the plans and get sucked in by all the Instagram worthy homesteaders who have all the projects on the go and I fret. I do! Patience truly is a virtue that I must work on. I suppose winter weather and maple syrup is one way of teaching me. I hope I get the point.

And you, my friend? How’s fruit bearing on your tree? Do you loose it occasionally? Are your noodles al dente the same as your attitude with co-workers? A little hard because you didn’t wait for things to soften out? Are your relationships sweet but simply not thick enough because you haven’t allowed time? I don’t know… some days I think I have it all together. Other days my pancakes just get sticky, but lack substance. It’s all a journey, my friend. We shall try out the fire once again soon. This time, I will try and be patient! Then I’ll write about it and we’ll learn together!

Weather Reflections: Lessons from Jesus Calming the Storm

Greetings! The next few days are supposed to be wet, wet, wet! So, as a good Canadian, I’m going to start this week’s post with small talk about the weather. If the weather does what it says it’s going to, our piles of snow are going to melt away to puddles – with flooding, mud and general chaos of spring. I’m okay with that, as long as the temperature stays above freezing and it doesn’t turn into a slick ice rink on the roads! I’m done with that type of country driving (see here for my great winter driving story! HeHe!)

Speaking of the weather… it was the topic of my Sunday school lesson this past week. (They don’t call it “Sunday school” anymore; who wants school on Sundays? Showing my age here -but whatever… you get it – lessons for a bunch of little kids from the Bible). I’m loving getting back to hanging out with 3 year olds. They are brutally honest. They won’t let you rest for a moment… nor do they let you get away with faking it. They’ve got to trust you or it won’t fly. Which makes it difficult if they are a little shy and don’t want to hang out with a newbie who they only see once a month on the kids ministry schedule instead of mom or dad. We had eight blessings this week. One handsome young man melted my heart when he wanted only me to play with him. Alas, I digress… back to the weather.

Our lesson was Jesus calming the storm. In case you are not familiar… the gospels tell the story of Jesus and the disciples out in a boat when a storm arises. Jesus is asleep, and the men become afraid and wake him up. Bottom line: Jesus tells them He’s got it all under control and proceeds to “rebuke the winds and the rain” and calms the storm back to a gentle breeze. Yada Yada… disciples are again amazed at God’s power, Promote to kids that Jesus has the power like Superman and all is good in the world. The kids and I have a snowball fight with cotton balls, we laugh and run around with blue streamers being wind and crazy rain and I roll play Jesus and make them all STOP and be calm again.

And so, I muse. This story has been on my radar three different times this week in three different contexts. And I always say…”if you don’t listen to God’s still, small voice, then He’ll hit you with a 2×4 until you get it”. Jesus calming the storm. What am I to learn? Do I need reassurance that God, is in fact, always in control? Especially right now when Canada and the USA are battling out tariff wars and the news is all a buzz about what’s going to happen next? Am I to share it here, in my little corner of the internet, to encourage you, my beloved readers, that yes, God has the power to rebuke even the wind and rain and make the earth stop shaking? Or am I to reflect on how I can teach the next generation about the simplicity of the Gospel miracles… through play and fun?

Perhaps it’s all of the above. Weather is one of the simplest, and yet complex observances we can make on a daily basis. We have apps that keep us up to date hour by hour. Driving conditions and school bus cancellations… flight delays, weather watches and our outfit of the day. We are so influenced by something so seemingly simple as what ever is happening in the sky. Perhaps this is why it’s hitting me threefold this week. Something’s about to come down the tubes that will prompt me to remember that Yup, God’s got this one too… and a snowball fight with 3 year olds will be triggered in my memory.

Photo credit Etsy

And so, I pass it on to you, this week, my beloveds… so that we can be encouraged together that no matter what, the Creator of the universe and all the crazy weather that comes with it, still has you and I in the palm of His hand. We can peacefully sleep in the bottom of the ship (on a pillow says only one of the gospels… which is a weird observation in itself, but I digress again) as the storm rages on around us, knowing that Jesus “got power”! Take it to heart… and bring your umbrella just in case.

Is the Gospel Too Complicated? Simplifying Faith from the Dentist’s Chair

Welcome back! I trust ya’ll excepted my little break for family day weekend… and digging out from all this snow we’ve been having! I was a little neglectful in writing, but we’re back with another muse or two for you this week. It’s finally getting warmer here and the chickens have started to venture out again: hurray! I also started some seeds indoors… so spring must be coming. Here’s hoping!

Yet for now, the snow is still piled up on the ground and we are still doing indoor things… most recently visiting the dentist for the first time since moving here. I know – the dentist isn’t first on my list of cozy things to do on a winter’s day, either… but it’s gotta be done and so we went. And, of course, I had a cavity or two that needed to be filled. And so a second visit (and likely a third) will be warranted.

Which is where my muse for this week comes from. There I was, sitting in the dentist chair with my mouth gaped open, my head back upon the headrest, blankly flipping my views from the ceiling tile to the masked Doctor’s blinding headlamp to the hygienist’s most perfectly tailored eyebrows, thinking to myself: “How on earth do I know that what these people are doing in my mouth, to my body, is necessary or needed?” (As I said, it’s a new dentist office for me, and they didn’t seem to be very forthcoming with explanations…)

Now, don’t come at me, I went to the dentist, after all. I was sitting there in their chair, allowing whatever chaos was happening in my mouth to occur. I got poked and prodded by the metal scrap-ey things and glowed and cured under the light that the doctor’s hide from but don’t protect you from. I listened to the conversation from the experts on yes, ring 3 clamp and this number 3 tooth or whatever…. but again, it was a language I didn’t really understand. I have no expertise in dental care. And so I simply went along with whatever they suggested and kept my mouth – open – in this case.

Which had me thinking about a few things. Number one: How do we feel about being left in the dark about things? No one but God knows our futures. Are we okay with that? Do we speak up, inquire, advocate for the unknown? Or do we trust that whatever God has planned for us is for the best and we should just book the appointment and sit in the chair? As per usual, I don’t have the answer, I am simply pondering my thoughts. For me, I have been assured through past experiences that God’s got whatever may be ailing me, and so, I am pretty confident trusting that He’ll pull me through whatever lies ahead. For others, it may be a little harder. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to inquire and ask questions to help us decipher His plan for our lives. The Bible, prayer and discussion with believers help. Mittonmusings has chatted about these things before, and likely will muse about them in the future. Still, it was a contemplative thought as I sat there gagged by the crazy spit suctioning thing those dentists flash at you.

My number two thought, as I counted dots in ceiling tiles, was do we “talk over” people? The doctor and assistant chit-chatted about their work – and there I was sitting, listening, having no clue as to their goings on. Like the mechanic saying it was a “thingamabob” attached to the “whatchamacallit” making a noise from the “fenderbenderwhosit”. I have no idea… just make the car run again and don’t charge me a crazy amount to do it! Do you and I talk in riddles and parables? We use words like “sanctified” “righteousness” and even things like “worship” and holy “thees” and “thous”. Have you ever caught yourself speaking a whole new language when it comes to “spiritual things”? Can we make following Jesus more “user friendly”? Should we? Are there traditions that we hold dear just for the sake of tradition? Is it hindering someone else from drawing closer to God and His will? I’m guilty as charged. Try teaching kids about Bible stories… they’ll tell you what they think they know because someone told them once using big words. “Hark the Harold Angel sing”: who’s Harold and why is he singing? They’ll say.

The ornate altar of Santa Prisca and San Sebastián in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico… Have we made the Gospel too complicated?!

Words are hard. Unknown futures can be harder. I think our job, therefore, is to listen and trust and communicate wisely and simply. The gospel isn’t hard… but we make it that way. We add in man-made rules, and traditions, and words, and pie-in-the-sky quotes that don’t make sense or are difficult to follow through. The truth is God loves you, I need to love you, and that’s all there is. The rest we’ll work out later. As for me, I gotta go brush my teeth and make another appointment for a chair and another look at some well groomed eye-brows! Happy musing, my beloveds!