This Morning

Some mornings (like this morning), I think it'd be nice if our only child, an 11-month-old bringer of joy, would take a few hours or more-long nap...ha! :) (This is unlikely as it's usually only about an hour.) Then I could read a book (currently reading Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning and just LOVEing it! Oh, it is good good good. Please read.) and sip my coffee and eat a pumpkin muffin, and fold a few loads of laundry, and pick up the messes she made before she took her nap (she is into emptying every basket/cupboard/box right now - I think her exploring is good, so I let her go at it!), and write here on my blog, and hmm...maybe do something crafty (I have a list of things I want to do....some sewing, some mod-podging, refresh my memory on knitting, organize photos into an album...). Yes, that would be nice somedays, eh? But, the truth is, she is about to wake up soon. Soon. Sometimes I'm rushing to get things done before I think she might wake up.  I will take it slow and easy the first half hour then the last half hour boom, boom, boom...I'm getting as much done as I can squeeze in! I, admit, the feeling of accomplishment over the household chores feels good...and it looks good. I like when loads of laundry aren't making my living room look like a room used as a giant laundry basket anymore. :)

So, I've been thinking of a few things to write about lately. Um...One, is how my husband and I are growing in and experiencing (after a long stale season) our sonship and daughtership in God more than we ever have in our adult lives (and I want to share how we are discovering this inner work of the Holy Spirit the last two years, especially); Two, how I have been arising to be a fighter (hmm)...a fighter for what is best in this place called the world where horrible things happen...a fighter to bring my Father's heavenly home to earth, and hearing Jesus' prayer in my mind's ear "Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven" with a deep, fierce passion; Three, something I just wanted to share this morning as I was outside with my 11-month-old beauty queen, and here it is...

I love the surroundings of trees, animals, plants, sky, clouds, sunshine, moon, stars, rainbows, etc. that I get to live in everyday. And that you get to live in everyday.  This morning, my daughter and I were outside watching a half dozen squirrels scurry about the yard (which is covered in gorgeous confetti leaves thanks to the tall trees above and God's great idea of "Fall"), gathering nuts for the coming winter. We were in wonder. My daughter stared these squirrels down. How peculiar, I imagine she wondered, like Alice arriving in Wonderland.

(I also love when a whisk of wind goes by us, she looks all around, wondering where this invisible sight and feeling comes from and where it could be going.)

Earlier this week, I was on a walk and my breath was literally taken away and my mind unable to comprehend the beauty of the color of the leaves about us, falling around us, the smell in the air, the coolness of the day and how it felt on my face, the sun's warm rays finding room to reach us through the trees branches, etc. It was just amazing. I knew I was made for this. And I was filled with thanksgiving and joy (I could've danced and shouted right there! - and I kinda did a toned down version) for the glorious environment my Papa God has made for me, has given me, to have rhythm with....and for me to tell myself in that moment that this is just a fringe of my Father's creativity, I was ecstatic and overwhelmed.  This priveleged, beautiful planet (perfectly tilted at 23 degrees producing our seasons, weighing an estimated six sextillion pounds, and spinning me around on it's invisible axis more than thousand miles an hour) tells me "OH, I AM THOUGHT OF! CARED FOR! LOVED!!!"

One more wonderful thing that happened at the zoo earlier this week. (Side note: I am thankful for zoos in that I get to see really cool animals with my own eyes, but I am also so saddened too...I want the singing dogs to have miles to run, not small spaces to pace over and over.).  So the wonderful thing? The polar bear. The polar bear! Oh, the polar bear. He/she was amazing us over and over.  She was swimming around and around her pool, pushing off the glass to do the back stroke. It was soooooooo cool!! Among the 20 or so people watching, I was the loudest with my "Wow! Oh my goodness! So amazing!" and laughter bursts of joy as I watched that big white polar bear push off the glass and swim round and round.  My daughter was also squealing and clapping her hands!  YES, WE PRAISE YOU, GOD!! WONDERFUL ARE YOUR WORKS!!