Tag Archives: peace

Advent Reflections: Peace in the Midst of Life’s Messiness

Posted on by
1

Welcome to week two of Advent: Peace. Except today’s post will most likely be later than normal, because this week at Itsnotta Farm, was anything but peaceful! We are on day four off school due to weather issues: had our first major snowfall, freezing rain and now fog! Winter has arrived. Then we had a bunny escape. The snow created a little gap that kept the door of the rabbit run from closing completely. I thought it was small enough, but little Pineapple squeezed out and (luckily) was hiding in the woodpile. I must give credit to the hubby, who not only found him, but was quick enough to capture him again, too. (Now, don’t say I don’t acknowledge the fine efforts of my begrudging farm help!) This was all before we had to turn back from a birthday dinner due to snowy highways. I guess it didn’t matter that we were already late at that point. Then came the freezing rain and now soggy fields. The rabbits and chickens are miserable and restricted to small spaces to avoid muddy feet.

img_8024
The Chickens don’t like getting their feet wet…

The most exciting event that has taken up my time, though, and certainly disrupted the peace, was the early arrival of our first grandson! He came sooner than expected, but a welcome disruption to our weekend plans! I was able to witness his birth and give kudos to his brave mom who delivered the 8lb 4oz bundle of joy in a super quick and drug free labour! Luckily, the weather was great at 3 o’clock in the morning and so was the traffic. We are beyond proud of our new addition and the crew that loves him. Alas, as the youngest auntie recently said: “There is no peace without first experiencing chaos”. Chaos indeed.

But let’s muse for a moment on the opposite, which is supposed to be the theme of our week. Peace. What does it conjure up for your mind’s eye? White doves and silent gunfire? United nations talks? Hot cocoas and roaring fires? A good book and a cozy blanket? Sunlit summers on the beach? This week, I captured a little video of tiny songbirds flitting to and from our bird feeder. They come when the snow piles up. (I’ll post the video on my socials later for you.) As I watched them for a little while through the window with my morning coffee, a gentle peace filled my soul and I took a moment to thank God for my many blessings. And then our grand baby made one more for the list!

Perfect little toes of our new Grand baby!

I’m sure your blessings list is as long as mine, and so, I remind you to take a minute to be thankful for it. Step back for a moment and see the bigger picture of Christmas. Reflect on its beauty and the quiet moments. Even in the chaos. These days of commercialism and black Friday sales has me often wondering why am I buying more gifts for people who already have so much? I get overwhelmed with “too much stuff” and yet, I feel I must get “something” for this or that occasion. That’s a topic for another day, though.

Back to Peace. I’ve reflected several times on Mary as a main character in the Christmas story, and our new baby had me thinking about her again this week. Can you imagine an inexperienced teenager giving birth to a baby after travelling all night? And to do it in a stinky feed shed out back in the cold and dark with some guy she doesn’t really know yet? I wonder if chickens were there to peck curiously at, ummm, “birthing stuff”. Sorry, maybe that was a little graphic, but after living on a semi-farm, I know that animals stink, and bringing life into the world is messy and brutally raw and real and anything but the peaceful Christmas card scenes we see in the pretty boxes doused in glitter.

Life is messy. As much as I’d like to have my days scheduled and planned and filled with productive work, something often gets in the way. I don’t like to be spontaneous, and I am not good at “dropping everything” to go visit a sick friend or tend to a need that arises. My extrovert hubby says I need to work on that. Perhaps. Maybe that’s why Peace is a part of the preparation, or advent, period. A fruit of the Spirit to focus on during the craziness that has become December. A symbolic candle lit for a brief moment of reflection to muse on “shalom”. A deeper meaning than just the absence of conflict, but rather a wholeness or completeness. It’s a feeling that only God can give. A peace that passes understanding. One that goes beyond, or perhaps, in the middle of, our circumstances. It’s taking the moment – in the middle of the moment – because you have the well being, or “shalom” enough to do it. And that feeling wasn’t generated by you, it was given to you.

An Unlikely “clean” Nativity scene…that rooster would wake the baby who was probably just sneezed on by the cow!

Mary had it in the middle of her “silent night” when a bunch of sheep and burly shepherds with bad B.O. showed up to worship her newborn wrapped up in swaddling clothes who was lying in a manger. A manger likely covered in cow saliva and a chicken dropping or two. Daniel had it in the middle of a lion’s den smelling the breath of giant cats who wished to make him their next meal. Abraham had it as he bound his son and prepared to offer him as a sacrifice, even though Issac was given to him as his promised miracle baby. Esther had it as she went before a fickle king to save her people from mass destruction. And she was “just a pretty face”.

Beloved, God gives it to you and I as well! Jesus said: ” Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27 NKJV) Even in the middle of Christmas chaos. Even when life is messy. Hope. And now Peace. Join us next week for another round of advent reflections! Or sign up for a weekly email so you never miss a blog post, because, well, sometimes I need to drop my plan and fill a different need…

Enjoying the Peace and Quiet

Posted on by
Reply

One comment I often get since we moved out to the country is “Oh, you must be enjoying the peace and quiet so much”. And I am not sure how to answer that. It certainly is quiet. A different kind of quiet. The first few days you could actually “hear” the quiet. You can’t explain it until you’ve experienced it. Like labour pains. We have gotten used to the sound now. Or what people think is quiet. Nature has its own ebb and flow. Cows don’t have a curfew. Crows and jays are early risers. School buses and diesel trucks are not exactly quiet when they travel by. But sure, I’ll give you quiet.

Throwback to December 2019…another thought on Peace

Peaceful. Now there is another muse. What exactly does that mean? I’ve written about peace before. We talk about it. Peace after war. A sense of calm. A thought process to relieve your anxiety. A tranquil moment in nature. People find it on top of a mountain or at some yoga retreat. I think the definition is slightly different for everyone. Maybe it’s different for the same person at different times. Peace. What does it mean for you?

I took this picture the other day at the top of my farmhouse stairs. It was the moment I had been dreaming about. The sun was streaming in through the widow’s balcony (I actually heard the explanation for that yesterday so it’s gonna be my new name for it), and the fluffy, pretty cat was all curled up on the antique chair at the top of the wooden Victorian staircase. A picture of perfect peace.

Or is it? How do you explain a feeling? How do you describe an emotion that may be different for each one of us? How do you capture the thought of an experience that may change depending on where you are in your life journey? Very recently I was chatting with a friend who’s loved one was in the final throws of his servant filled life here on earth. She tells me that they were praying that the Lord would take him so that he would finally be at peace. I’ve heard many prayers for the same thing. An end to suffering. I, too, have called out to God on more than one occasion, questioning why He would let this or that go on for so long? We crave peace. We crave it for ourselves. We crave it for those we love. We even crave it for those we don’t know. We watch the news or hear reports of some cruelty and we cry out for peace. For justice. For an end to suffering.

My kids tease me that I end up blubbering at movies where this emotion is stirred up within me. Usually it’s about a creature. I know, I know, human beings should take on more of a precedence than that faithful dog, but I can somehow explain away the suffering of people. Oh, they did something to deserve it. Oh, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, where were their mothers? They likely had a bad upbringing. That cute puppy is innocent though! I’m wrong in my justifications, of course. God did not design suffering. He did design consequences to sin, but they shouldn’t explain away why innocent people have to endure some of the hardships we do. The whole earth is on a collision course with affliction and lack of peace because of the darkness that entered the World with Adam and Eve.

So, yeah, as I sit here with my laptop perched on a straw bale (It’s part of my sad attempt at fall porch decorations) with the dog laying at my feet, I’m tempted to say I am enjoying the peace and quiet. The crisp air is casually swaying the lilac bushes and the crickets are still humming. All too soon though, the “silence” is broken by the call of a noisy blue jay, followed by a school bus rumbling by on its way back from drop offs. The dog barks at it, my writing momentum is broken as my attention shifts and chaos resumes. Our weak and feeble minds don’t hold onto the “peace that passes all understanding” for very long.

Denali National Park Photo by Kent Miller NPS

I’m comforted to know that the anxieties and worries and the constant brain battles we face were not the original plan. We pray for peace because we know that God in His infinite wisdom made it to be the norm. We crave it and it renews us because He made it part of our being. And it will come again one day when it all gets “reset”. Until then, I promise to share little glimpses of it that I see here on Itsnotta farm and mittonmusings. There will be chaos, crazy, death, destruction and suffering too. Although, I wish you peace this week, my friend. Whatever that looks like for you, I hope you see it and take the time to thank the One who designed it that way. May it calm the mayhem in your brain and give you a glimpse of Heaven. Peace and quiet. Now there’s a concept.

Finding Peace in the Storm

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome to the second week of Advent… the candle of Peace. Following our theme this year, let me tell you another little story.

In a far, far away land, a wealthy king decided to decorate the hallways of his grand home by holding a contest. He offered a substantial award to the artist who could depict “peace” in a painting. Artists from far and wide got to work. They presented the king with various peaceful renditions: snow-covered fields, baskets of flowers and fruits, children playing, and musical orchestras, but the king settled on two paintings of the kingdom’s nearby mountains.

The first was a painting of the valley’s lake in summer. The lush green mountainside towered over the still, clear water, the mountains reflected back at the beaming sun, disturbed only by the dusting of clouds in the clear blue sky. Wildflowers dotted the mountains. Many of the townspeople thought this was obviously the winner of the contest, for the painting surely exemplified “peace”.

The king mulled it over, appreciating its beauty, but passed it over for the final piece. The second painting was also one of the surrounding mountains and valley lake. Yet, this painting was dark and stormy. The mountains were in the shadows, lit only by a giant lightning bolt. The lake was swirled in a tempest of turbulent waves and whitecaps. No flowers dotted the countryside, only deep forests of fir trees. “This masterpiece will hang in my halls, as it depicts the truest “peace”” declared the king, “Do you see it? Tucked in here, beside the tallest fir tree in the shadows? A simple nest where momma bird sits quietly on her clutch of eggs, protected from the raging storm.”

True peace is when we can find calm despite the noise from the outside world. God-given peace of mind is not affected by the state of one’s surroundings, it comes from our hearts. Sometimes that means changing our perspectives. It was easy to see peace in the first painting of the summer sun. But the king had to look deep into the storm to find the nest. The bird knew she could not change the rain, but she could wait it out. The Holy Spirit helps us see the things we can change and the things we cannot change. He helps us look deep within and find what we need to carry on.

Another thoughtful muse by an unknown author (again adapted by me for you!) to remind us this week, that there are no promises that life will be endless summer days filled with wildflowers. There will be times when God will allow the tempests to rage deep into the shadows of our lives. True peace comes when we tuck ourselves in, knowing that God’s presence will guard and protect us — even in the middle of the storm. Only then are we truly able to shield others from similar storms.

And so, my beloveds, as we walk through this second week of Advent, remember that storms will come!

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 14:26,27