An Ideal Life

 Today a few different concepts converged in my mind. I heard a bit about a pastor named John Mark Comer, who writes books with titles like The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies that Sabotage Your Peace. One interviewer from The Atlantic tried to get hold of Comer to interview him and faced a challenge; the man was taking his own advice of a peaceful and unhurried life so that he wasn't responding to emails or texts.

Another trendy ad on Facebook is showing me a new book, The Way of the Wildflower: Gospel Meditations to Unburden Your Anxious Soul. How can I live like a wildflower? Unworried. Snoozing in the sun. Beautiful in my simplicity. 

Jesus describes this life this way:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (from Matthew 6)

My years of teaching literature left me with a handful of texts that stuck in my mind. One is "Bermudas" by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). He describes the arrival of the first Englishmen to the island, and the Edenic life they found there -- or rather, the life they hoped for there. The poem is the song these immigrants sing from their boat as they arrive. They imagine an island where God provides every need and they only receive. He drops figs into their mouths and tosses melons at their feet. Not only do they not have to work for their food, they don't even have to think about it. They are like the wildflowers, dozing in abundance, utterly confident of God's provision.

I was not raised this way. I was raised in the DOING generation. Christianity was all about doing, and then doing more. It is extremely hard for me to stop doing, or even thinking about doing, and relax into simply being. I can barely conceive of a life where that is God's will for me: Rest, Being, Trust, Slowing down, Stop Doing Anything. For many of us, I think he'd have to break both our legs to slow us down. Even then, we'd probably be hobbling along on a walker, shouting to the others, "Wait for me! I can help!"

I do firmly believe that the New Earth where we will live for eternity is much like Marvell's Bermuda. Eden, I think, was also that way. I don't think Adam would have spent all day every day hacking back vines and weeding. There will be no pursuit of money, success, or power. (Think of that!) There will be no heroic deeds to save others from disaster, because there will be no disaster. Will I spend the first long spell on the New Earth asleep, recovering from a life of over-doing?

I'm now in the portion of life where I spend much thought time talking with the Holy Spirit, listening to God's voice to me. "Slow down," he says. "Rest." Yet my mind always returns to The-Next-Thing-I-Plan-To-Do. I need rewiring.

Hello, friends!

This morning I was reading in a few of your blogs and thought it was time for me to give a little update. ALL MY PHOTOS loaded in reverse order! So we'll have to start with the most recent things, and proceed to the oldest.

My sewing machine broke a little part. Adam is ordering a new one. It's the little curly metal piece that you put the thread through just before the needle. Don't know what it's called.

The farmers market started up again this past Saturday. That tent is my spot. Lovely friends at the market -- both vendors and customers!

I'm not much of a cook these days. But I did make some yummy tacos last week!

And a quiche! I love quiche.

Before my machine broke, I sewed a tiny fabric bowl.

Adam had another infusion at Duke for his auto-immune illness. He'll be feeling better soon.

I sewed some little quilted pouches that roll up and tie.

And I've been doing a very little bit of spinning. I need to get back to that ....

This is a Tummy-Time Mat I finished this winter -- a stiff quilt for a baby to spend time on the floor. It's a "Wonky Star" pattern.

I've been painting a good bit.

This is my favorite one recently:

We had a significant winter weather event with very cold temps and lots of snow, unusual for us. It took a long time to melt! I'm noting which of my outdoor potted plants survived this weather, and I'll be buying more of them. The two best were Gaura and Creeping Wire Vine.

I hope you are all very well and enjoying the warmer spring days. Time to be outdoors in the sunshine and breezes, messing with pots and soil!

Talking Politics

 That title might be enough for you to click away to a calmer topic. I understand -- I've avoided politics on my blog for many years. I avoid it altogether on my Youtube channel, and I try very hard to avoid addressing politics on Facebook. I'm afraid of offending friends and family whom I care about.

However, there comes a moment when one's silence is itself a wrong-doing. For me, that moment is now.

I've never supported Donald Trump's foray into politics. While so many of my fellow conservatives have supported him (either reluctantly while holding noses, or enthusiastically as if he were a savior), I've always smelled a rat. Trump has been in the public eye for most of his life. He never hid his character -- a bully, a braggart, a womanizer, a selfish manipulator, a vain and greedy man. Just because he bullied all other nominees out of the running in the GOP primaries in 2016 didn't mean he'd changed at all, to me.

Every move he's made has been for his own advancement. I feel he has the affliction of many elderly men past the age where sexual prowess is their driving force; he craves power and applause. He has successfully secured the one position in the world that gives him the ability to flex his political muscles. Is he neglecting domestic crises, focusing instead relentlessly on international dramas? Of course -- International muscles are more impressive that domestic ones. I have never seen a president less inclined to be a servant of the people.

As Bonhoeffer told us, to remain silent in the face of evil is to be complicit in it. "Not to speak is to speak." If I don't publicly state that I oppose the actions of Trump, then with my silence I'm saying that I support him. I cannot allow that. I must speak, even if only on a tiny old blog with few who see it.

I am mystified by my Christian friends who continue to support him. But I cannot let that silence me; that would be wrong. They must follow their consciences, and I must follow mine. The incident now that pulls me from silence is the attack on Venezuela, the bombings that took civilian lives, all so that Trump could kidnap a bad president and his wife and drag them to New York in handcuffs.

This is not the American way. Historically, we negotiate, we apply pressure, we unite with allies. But we don't bomb, we don't murder, we don't make lame excuses ("His people hate him!" "He's a drug thug!" "He probably stole an election!") These are not reasons the US gives for this kind of barbarity and invasion of another nation's sovereign space. It's not the American way, but it is the Trump way.

I'm watching Lucy Worsley's recent documentary, Blitz Spirit, about how common British folks handled the terror and trauma of WW2 bombings in England. They did not cave; they rose to the occasion to save their nation, to preserve who they were. I want Americans to do the same. Who are we? A band of thugs? Bullies in the world? Or are we the nation that sets an example of service, support, encouraging independence instead of stripping it away from others. Will Trump vocally honor Greenland's independence? Will he say what Americans have always said -- about ourselves and others -- that your land belongs to YOU, and we will defend your right to keep it and live in it and rule it as you see fit? That's the America we have been, and I want to  state loudly that we still are, in spite of the bully who currently sits in the Oval Office. May he depart back to his private life soon. 

We need a different leader who reminds us why we are great. We are great because our goal is to share freedom, independence, sovereignty, and self-governance around the world. American is great because she is slow to react, quick to help. We need a president who has those same values.