Tag Archives: fall

The Lessons of Psalm 1

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I was prompted this week to write a post on Psalm 1. I have no idea why. Perhaps somewhere out there someone needs to hear my rantings. This is not the usual way I begin musing about something. Often, an event happens here at the farm, or I hear or watch a video or talk about a verse or passage and it makes me think of something. Writers tend to have a plan… or at least a little inspiration. A creative venue for ideas to be born and flourish. A connection. Something to make you say…”Hmmnnn, I wonder”. For some reason, this week didn’t turn out that way… but I am going with it anyway.

In case you need a refresher, here is Psalm 1 in it’s entirety:

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

At first, I tried to find something within the verses to comment on. A thought, a “word from the Lord”, a deeper meaning. I’m stuck as to how to do this. Is it political? An election is happening in the USA… lots of controversy there. Do I make a comment on “sitting in the ways of the wicked?” Not my thing… nor my place. Do I take instruction from the “meditate day and night” part? True and encouraging statement. Still not where I am feeling it.

Obviously, out here in the rural Ontario rolling hills, there are a lot of trees. And at this time of year, the trees are withering. Fruit has been harvested, the season is over, and all the leaves have died and fallen to the ground. The hills are alive with the colour of not fruit, but death. Even the ones planted by the water! The chaff that the wind dries and blows away is all that’s left. I don’t get it either. The streams are getting ready to freeze over. My world right now is not the picturesque stream with weeping willows full of leaves and a sanctuary for all who find shelter underneath it’s full branches. All I see is dried up crunchy leaves and cold water surrounded by parched branches.

So, I’m sorry. Perhaps this was not one of my better posts. It’s not funny, or informative, or enlightening. It simply is. I have put it out there. Wrote it in black and white with every intention of being obedient to a prompting. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe we have been instructed to take a moment of “stillness”. There is plenty to unpack in these few verses. Many a preacher would spend an entire series of messages on council, meditation, being planted, fruit, prosperity, judgement, righteousness, and delighting in the Lord. And yet, I am not.

Maybe my role for this week is simply to post the words. Let the chips fall where they may. Remind you (and me) that the words are there. The leaves are there. They have piled up in wait for a new season of growth later. The streams of living water still has trees planted nearby. The wicked are still out there – in droves. We still need to meditate and understand that judgement is coming. And so, I have done my part. I posted it.

It’s your job to read it and muse in your own way this week, my friend. Gather your own thoughts and inspiration. Why not comment and let me know… what do you think?

Thanksgiving Prayer

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It’s Canadian Thanksgiving and we have a lot… a lot… to be Thankful for this year. It’s been a crazy whirlwind of life changing moments in the last few months, but God has been faithful and our ever constant source of support and comfort. Especially when the moments got just a bit too tough for my little human brain to handle.

So for today’s post, I thought I’d be super candid and simply write out a thanksgiving prayer. I hope it brings you joy this thanksgiving weekend.

nathan-dumlao-unsplash

Dear Lord,

Thank you for being in charge. Thank you for keeping it all together when I feel like I don’t have it all together. Thank you for being there in the little things. Like my garden spider. The monarch butterfly. The simple daisies and the vine of red.

Thank you for allowing me tears and laughter. Thank you for special visits with family and friends. For blessing us with “Itsnotta” farm and our dreams and adventures now, and in the years to come. I’m grateful and humbled at what You have given to us each and every time we give “the tour”. I marvel at the details and how you orchestrated it all – just for us.

I thank you Lord for allowing us to be pushed out of our comfort zones. To integrate into a community where things are not the same as they were before. For pushing me to get out there and try. Please God, give me the courage to continue to be bold and a light in a world who so desperately needs You. Please help me encourage our children to grow in their independence as they grow into adulthood. Protect them and send your angels to guide, comfort and shelter them out on their own. May they feel the safety of “coming home” often. May they feel the freedom to raid the fridge and bring their dirty laundry home to mom.

Help me to be patient with others who don’t see eye to eye with me. Grant me supernatural love for those personalities who clash with my own. Allow me gentle words. Less sarcasm. Less cutting comebacks and more time to think before I speak.

Thank you, Lord, for bringing people into our lives who encourage. For a Christian heritage that has given us a strong foundation. May we never take that for granted. Help me to remember to take more time for those who need it. Help me to be aware of those who are on the sidelines and be an encourager.

Thank you, Lord, for the talents and gifts you have given me so generously. Help me to use them well and for Your kingdom. To not be proud – as those gifts and talents are not my own, but given to me to use well. Thank you for your goodness, and blessing us with adequate finances, a source of income, abundance of food, shelter and so many tangible items that surround us. Remind me to share and to not take anything for granted. For these things are Yours.

And finally, Lord, thank you for this little piece of the internet where I can freely express my joys and thoughts and musings with others. I pray that you use it to bless strangers. To encourage. To be real as well, allowing others to “taste and see” for themselves what you have done for us. Life is not always easy. Thank you. Thank you for pruning and sharpening us through trials… and for reminding us that only through pruning do we bear fruit.

As we go into this week, give us the energy we need to continue to do all the things. The resignation to push forward and do all the hard stuff. The self control to choose peace when we are pushed to our limits. And in it all, help us to be thankful!

With all the sincerity of my heart,

Amen.

PHOTO: FRANK SPINELLI/GETTY IMAGES

Decorating for Fall

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This was the display at the front of our new church on Sunday. Simple. Rustic. Country. And I love it! ‘Tis the season of change in Ontario and it’s never more evident than in the heart of farm country! Our neighbours have started harvesting the soy bean field behind us and we have seen several large green farm vehicles in various fields around. We are still learning about what goes on and will probably never fully understand it all, but we hear that the dust is about to start flying and the roar of tractors and diesel engines will likely be heard for the next several weeks. Months, apparently, if you harvest cow corn for winter. It’s not dry and ready until December we’ve been told – if you want to “silo” it.

The sun sets so early now. Yet the colours are absolutely spectacular! Vibrant pink hues against the golden fields and touches of auburn yellow and orange forests mix with the still green rolling hills of our pathway home. Tonite, as we walked the dog, I marvelled at a vine so crimson, it looked almost dyed. Dipped in some cherry stain – rich and fermented. Like a well aged wine.

Of course, fall fair season has begun. That’s when your sense of smell takes over from sight. Fried donuts and funnel cakes. Cinnamon and cloves in the baked goods. Apple pies. Pumpkins and root vegetables. Rich coffee with cream that warms your insides. Now that I have my own barn and have been to the feed lot, I have learned that hay and straw actually has a very sweet smell. Again, slightly fermented. Okay, I suppose you have to include that sharp ammonia smell of urine and manure, since we are musing about the whole gamut of the senses. Let’s pretend we worked hard to muck out the stalls and only fresh, sweet straw is left okay?

My husband is thankful the mosquitoes have disappeared. My garden spider is gone. A few fuzzy caterpillars still cross my path now and then and the squirrels and chipmunks are busier than ever. In the heat of the mid day the wasps still swarm my porch and this weekend the lady bug invasion began. Hundreds of biting beetles snuck in through the cracks and hovered at my front door. Yuk. We vacuumed them up into oblivion.

Via houseofhawthorns.com

I marvel and muse at this time of year because nature simply cannot help but display the majesty of a master artist. If you live in a place that seldom changes with the seasons, I pity you because God’s creation is so diverse, it’s a shame that the entire world doesn’t get to see what we do in Canada. I hope you can love it through my words.

There truly is a season for everything and a time for every activity under Heaven. A unique design for beauty in, essentially, preparation for death. I am trying to prepare myself for winter. It’s an inevitable reality. And like death, it will come all to quickly. Country people prepare for winter. Wood is cut and piled. Chains and winter tires. We need a snowblower. My new bunnies need to be protected from the wind. I wonder if we prepare for death as much as we do winter? That’s a dark reality for thought at another time. Let’s go back to donuts and funnel cakes, shall we?

Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up. We will be celebrating here at the farmhouse and my porch display is lacking. I’m trying to up my decorating game – even found a box labelled “fall” with goodies in it for use. I’m gonna try. I just can’t help but celebrate the beauty it represents! Yet, I am reminded that it goes so much deeper than orange hues and pumpkins – it points to the One who set science ablaze with seasonal changes and a fully functional world based on lifecycles and minute cellular workings that cause food chains to explode with sights, sounds, smells and tastes!

We truly have much to be thankful for. Be blessed, my friends, for there is a supernatural Creator who decorated for fall just for us!