How Do You Describe Yourself in 10 Words?

Welcome back. I’m a bit behind in my post this week, but have had a little bit of writer’s block. Nothing has been hard pressed on my mind. Not that I haven’t been thinking of things, of course, but what to share… anyway, I did what any good writer does: Check a few writing prompts to get the juices flowing (thanks wordpress.com). Nothing really grabbed my eye there either except one. Here was the posing question: How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you?

Describe yourself in 10 words or less…

Okay, so the obvious. Physical features? Body type? Hair colour, eye colour, skin tone? All irrelevant, really. Does it matter? Does it cause instant judgement if you are a curvy girl? Dark skinned or almond eyed? Do you have an accent? I think about these things when I send out resumes. Or random emails. Do you wonder what I really look like physically when you read this public blog post? Does it matter to the words I print? Realistically, it does. Our views are tainted by the subliminal signals given off in our physical appearances. You’d be less likely to listen to my conservative, religious world views if I was a middle-aged, white American male with blue eyes and silver hair.

So, then we perhaps look at education, or religious beliefs or job description. Age, maybe? Life and world experience? In this world of social media and instant information, a quick Google search will give you the basics on almost anyone. The recent passing of Ozzy Ozbourne flooded tonnes of posts. Each with their own twist. Was he a loving husband and father, or a crazed, bat-head biting lunatic promoting the devils’s music? A talented rock musician who shaped a generation, or an unintelligible drug addict? I’m glad I am not famous. Too many people judge you when you are famous. It doesn’t matter what you do, either. Peace keeper or Terrorist. I suppose it depends on what side you are on.

Recently saw this post: Ozzy on Sesame Street: Do we judge?

I am purposefully not going to answer the prompt question outright. I am going to leave it there for your own musing and thought. What I will say, is that I would love to be in God’s unfathomable brain when He creates people. He knows our little blip of existence in the great line of time. He knows who we will meet and why. He paints those skin tones and eye colours on purpose. He knows how we will feel about this or that and what drives our passions and goals. He knows our deepest darkest secrets and still loves us. Yet, He gives us a free will to choose our own destiny. Like I said, I’d love to be there when He’s mixing it all up. By the looks of some of you, He has a sense of humour, too. Just teasing.

So. There. Four hundred and seventy six words later, and a blog post is on the page. It’s a little shorter than normal, but then, so am I. A little rounder too. Hopefully, the words sparked a little musing for you this week. How would you describe yourself? Why? How did you come up with those initial thoughts? How do you describe your spouse? Your kids? Do we judge? Me? I’m a uniquely designed daughter of the King of Kings who created a fuller version of a slightly crazy chicken loving girl who shares my thoughts out here on the internet once and awhile to encourage strangers to think a bit about what they might think of themselves and others. May you go forward and be prompted by your own thoughts on the subject!

Deep and Wide: A Muddled Reflection

Welcome back, my beloveds! We’ve had an exciting weekend! It was our church’s annual “church in the park” where we take over the local parks band shell and hold our service by the beach. Traditionally, we have a baptism service and bbq lunch with fun activities for the afternoon. This time, eleven people committed to living a life for Christ through baptism. The fun part was that our staff had to wade out in to Lake Ontario … and it was anything but calm. June makes it a little chilly out there and the waves were coming in hard. Poor little youth leader; she was struggling to keep herself a float, let alone dunk others under! Yet, all survived. And it had me musing…

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Okay, but before I get to that, I need to premise it with another trigger. We have been enjoying watching our little grand baby grow (he’s six month’s already!) and this weekend he got to hang out in our inflatable kiddie pool… well, sort of. Hose water is still slightly cool for his chubby little legs. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Hanging out at the farm with grandma means Alexa is playing Veggie Tale Songs. I tried “traditional Sunday School songs” but that led to crazy war propaganda from the USA and nothing I recognized. Veggie Tales was it.

Yada yada yada…. all that to tell you that waves and water were my thoughts this weekend… which had me thinking about how many traditional hymns and songs have water, waves and being “washed” in fountains and rivers. Are you thinking of a few? Anyhow, I settled on Deep and Wide. A traditional Sunday school song all about (what I thought was) how deep and wide God’s love for us is. Turns out, other people have different thoughts. So here’s what I found.

The original “Deep and Wide” song was written by a Canadian Salvation Army officer named Sidney E. Cox. The original had three verses. You can find it here. Mr. Cox was saddened by the fact that the verses were essentially lost due to the song’s popularity as a children’s diddy. And the actions? Well, that was frowned upon too. Ha Ha… just realized this was originally printed in the Salvation Army’s War Cry Documents… it’s a war song too! He’s Canadian at least. Nonetheless, I think the song emphasizes how vast and wide God’s love for us is. Since depth and height are infinite in opposite directions, it’s a pretty good description, I thought.

The Original Deep and Wide with 3 verses printed from Salvation Army War Cry

Other thoughts on the song, however, reverberated with the idea of water, river and flowing. Like the waves of Lake Ontario, a crashing wave can be quite cleansing! Ezekiel 47:9 describes a river flowing bringing life to all it touches. So true a foundation to teach our little ones! And so, as we begin the summer season, and you hit the beach and get bowled over by a wave, think about Deep and Wide! Or perhaps your vacation takes you hopping through European cruises with great fountains bringing fresh water … flowing deep and wide!

So that’s my thoughts for this week… and hope it gets stuck in your head all week. Some veggies will be proud, even if Sidney is unimpressed.

The Story of Nieve: A Cat Named for Winter

I wanna tell you a little story about how our female cat came to arrive at our house. I’ve always had long haired Persians or Himalayan pure bred cats, but the breed standard was changing and the push face Persian was no longer my favourite. So, we (okay I) researched the next pretty kitty and discovered a Birman breeder about an hour or two from where we were living at the time. I wanted a boy. Boy cats are always better (we can debate that later… but trust me). A litter of kittens later and long story short, a girl is what we got, so we just went with it. After all, she was a cute little bundle of fluffy white fur, and declared my birthday present to myself. I had to wait for some time before she arrived, but the real story comes on the day of her pick up to come home.

Dec. 17, 2016….worth the trip!

We drove the hour plus in a blinding snowstorm, complete with freezing rain, wind and white outs. The hubby was determined to please his wife, and so we continued on the journey arriving with carrier in hand to complete the sale. Upon arrival, after a somewhat harrowing trip, he refused to “talk cat” with two crazy cat ladies, so he decided to wait in the car as we went over pedigrees and plans. More than likely resting from the white knuckling drive. Finally the little bundle of joy was wrapped snug in her little blankie… but the car battery(exhausted by the wait) was now dead. A few choice words later and a boost from the breeder’s husband… both men seemingly weary from the chit chat of the said crazy cat ladies… the vehicle roared once more and we were finally on our way.

Now, I tell you this story to paint the picture of how “Nieve” got her name. A breeder often lists litters by alphabet, and this litter was “N”, so we searched for names depicting ice, snow, sleet etc. Nieve means “snow” in Spanish. It worked… and it stuck. Yup, around here, the weather is worth naming your cat after. We live in Canada. It’s cold. We now have a farmer’s field in front of us and field behind us. The wind whips through our yard like a tyrant on a rampage. It’s cold. I drove home in the dark the other night and hit a snow drift pushed across the road from the fields north of us. I slid through it. It’s cold. Did I mention we live in Canada? And did I mention it’s cold here?

Photo by Lauren Hedges on Pexels.com

This week a “polar vortex” is going through our neck of the woods. It’s cold. The wind is brutal and my bunnies and chickens are outside. The rabbits seem to tolerate it, but every morning the chick birds peep out and say “Nope, my skin wrapped chicken feet do not like the feeling of snow nor ice!” And off they go back inside. The water dishes freeze and I must replenish them several times. The yard is littered with “ice pucks” where I have cracked out the dish shaped “disk” and replaced it with liquid water. It’s cold.

Still, I suppose we are luckier than others. Our face isn’t freezing off at first sight. My hands are feeling it — but I still have all the tips of my fingers and toes. I still run out without full proper winter attire to do animal chores. And I survive. It’s harsh, but it’s better than a lot of places. It’s funny when you think about weather. I wonder why God let the seasons happen. Why did it become part of His science? It’s a muse I think about especially when the weather gets like this.

There certainly are a lot of biblical references to weather: “white a snow” “cold hearts”, and the like. Storms, rain and the calm. I guess people haven’t changed all that much… we still talk about the weather! I suppose it is a topic that unites us in some way… we all have our weather story. Like picking up Nieve. I suppose our God stories should be as easy to talk about as the weather. A natural part of our daily existence. Something not quite under our control but a part of us nonetheless. An underlying “thing” that changes the way we should prepare for the day… we put on our gloves and boots like we should put on our graceful attitudes. Our hearts should overflow with what they hold inside. Is your heart cold ? Or is it overflowing with God’s spirit … like the wind rushing through the farmer’s fields.

Dress warm my friends… inside and out!

(Photo generated with A.I.)

Anyway… this cold is what I’ve been thinking about this week. I hope it makes you (and I) reflect on how it can be an example for us. Thanks for hanging out and talking about the weather with me. You’ve been a good Canadian! Here’s to a warmer week next week!