Joy to the Heart

The heavens declare the glory of God;

     the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

     night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

The law of the Lord is perfect,

reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,

making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right,

giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant,

giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure,

enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure

and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold,\

than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey,

than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward.

Psalm 19: 1-4, 7-11

Pumpkin Patch

Last night, under a glorious half-moon, we harvested a lovely crop of pumpkins at our place. They are at varying stages of ripeness, but with the danger of frost that evening, we decided to bring them in.

This is a very special crop of pumpkins. We never watered them. We didn't weed them. We didn't tend them in any way. In fact, we didn't even know that these pumpkins existed until a couple of weeks ago!

My husband discovered these pumpkins when he was out checking the cattle in the pasture close to our house. Here they were, growing in a dirt/burn pile we have in our pasture. This pile is waiting for a calm, damp day to be burned, which never quite happened this summer, and so instead became a pumpkin patch, unbeknownst to us.

It is not a great mystery how pumpkins came to be growing in our burn pile. Each year, I purchase a pumpkin for the kids to carve. Last year, I decided to buy an extra one to make into pie or soup. The one previous time I tried to make a pumpkin into a pie it resulted in a lumpy stew which could hardly be called a puree, and so I have never tried it again. However, my husband has made a pumpkin soup before that he was interested in trying again. The carved pumpkin's face had long since collapsed and ended up in the compost, and still this other, extra pumpkin sat on a shelf awaiting it's fate. And still longer. And perhaps Christmas came and went and squashes of any variety are remarkably long-lived.

Eventually, I got tired of looking at the pumpkin and it's only good use was to be smashed and shot at, which the boys were eager to take care of. They took the pumpkin out to the burn pile and first used it as target practice and then finished it off by smashing it to pieces, effectively scattering the seeds. And spring came, and the seeds grew and flowers blossomed and pumpkins formed and now we are the proud owners of 13 pumpkins. Which is really quite a happy thing.

Earlier this week, I went to visit my husband's aunt in the hospital. Just before I left, I asked her if she would like me to read a Bible passage to her. She suggested a passage and I went ahead read it. She said, “That was very nice, but that was not the passage I asked for.” Eventually, I located the right passage and read that too. But it was the first, “wrong” passage that stuck with me.

                        Here is a trustworthy saying:

                                If we died with him,

                                   we will also live with him;

                               if we endure,

                                  we will also reign with him.

                               If we disown him,

                                  he will also disown us;

                              if we are faithless,

                                 he will remain faithful,

                                for he cannot disown himself.

                                                     2 Timothy 2:11-13

God is faithful. God cannot be untrue to his character. And God is the consummate creator of new beginnings, the God of redemption. So that even with our failed attempts and neglected obligations, God still creates something new, some unexpected blessing, even for the faithless. Sort of like our pumpkin. We had left it too long to be of any good and it ended up on the garbage heap. But that wasn't the end of the story, even though we thought it was. The God of creation took over and life began again. It kind of makes me want to do something proper with these pumpkins we have now, to make that pie or that soup, to not just let them go to waste. Now, if I can just remember that life can grow up from the ashes of other, larger, life mistakes, there would be a lot of Thanksgiving to be had.  

Birthday Blessings

Norma Katherine Peters Funk

Born September 16, 1947

She is clothed with strength and dignity;

she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household

and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her:

"Many women do noble things,

but you surpass them all."

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:25-31

This is who my mother is.

I have learned much of value from her:

to protect,

to listen,

to pray,

to trust,

to persevere,

to wait,

to learn,

to never stop growing.

She is a woman of great character, a woman of tender wisdom and kindness, a woman of deep faith.

I am blessed to call her Mom.

Happy 65th birthday, Mom;  I wish you many more!

Happy September

It has long been my view that the New Year ought to start in September. It lines up so conveniently with the change of seasons – from summer to fall. It coincides with a change of pace – from vacation to work. It seems to me such a happy time with harvest and canning and ripening apples, colourful leaves and sweaters and “bouquets of sharpened pencils,” as Tom Hanks' character writes in the movie “You've Got Mail.”

And then, of course, there are the bright shiny new school supplies that just radiate optimism and hope. All those fresh, unused crayons, the glue sticks that have yet to dry out, so many pencils that haven't been chewed, and of course, the notebooks. The beautiful, blank notebooks that are just waiting to reveal vast amounts of creativity and wisdom, the empty pages that seem to embody the sentiments of Anne Shirley when she says, “Tomorrow is another day with no mistakes in it,” in 

L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. Maybe this will be the year that....

And so in that vein, I hereby submit my new year's resolutions. It is so much easier to make resolutions in September when the sun is still shining than in January when it's a struggle not to just succumb to the “bleak mid-winter” blues.

1. I will wash the dishes.
   I know exactly what Gretchen Rubin means when she writes in her book, The Happiness Project, that “Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy.” One of the things that brings me a ridiculous amount of pleasure is coming downstairs in the morning to clean and empty counters – no remnants of yesterday's work loitering about in the new day. However, in order for me to experience that kind of happiness, I have to actually wash the dishes the night before. This is a chore I would trade for almost any other – I greatly dislike doing the dishes. But now my aim will be to have the dishes done every evening in exchange for that delicious, if delayed, gratification.

2. I will have a plan for my days.
   My position in my family often leaves me feeling like the activities of my days are at the discretion of whoever or whatever calls most loudly or urgently for my attention. Go to town for this, make an appointment for that, deal with these vegetables now or rot and decay are imminent, help find this, make food now, arrange for this activity, clean that now, tend to this sick person. Life, of course, happens and sick people can't be scheduled, but I am determined to be more in charge of my days, to invite more order and structure into my life.

3. I am going to make more food ahead of time.
   Right up there with washing dishes on my dreaded chores list is coming up with supper ideas. I don't mind making supper so much as I struggle to come up with ideas to make, especially when it's left till 5:30 PM. And right up there with coming down to clean counters in gratifying events is opening the freezer to a ready-made supper idea in the form of a frozen casserole or something. I already had the kids each list their ten favorite supper ideas, which gave me approximately 30 ready-made ideas. (If you are wondering how 3 kids times 10 ideas equals approximately 30 ideas, it's because one child wanted to trade extra snack ideas for fewer supper ideas.) So now that I have ideas, I can get cooking! And my husband always says I am a happier person when I have a long-term menu-plan. So here's to a happier wife!

So, clearly, not very lofty goals. But perhaps manageable and perhaps achievable. And perhaps, if I feel more in control of myself in these areas, I will be a happier person which will possibly lead me to being more compassionate and empathetic, more generous and kind-hearted. As Samuel Johnson says, “The business of a wise person is to be happy.” Happy September to all!

“Teach us to number our days aright,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12