The Week

I'm a bit baffled what to write these days. Back when we all started blogging year ago, spilling your thoughts and opinions for everyone to read was heady business. These days I doubt whether social media conversations are profitable, and whether self-revelation online is wise. If you hear less from me it's because I'm pondering this.

So I'll tell you what I did this past week, if I can  remember. Memory is an issue these days!

Last Monday we had rehearsal for the Pamlico Community Chorus spring concert (which occurred last night). We discovered our director was hospitalized, and much shuffling and gnashing of teeth ensued as we figured out how to make the concert work. I think I did some sewing that day.

flax-seed-filled comfy pouches

Tuesday evening we had Bible study and dropped off some chicken to a friend who'd had surgery. I think I also did yard work on Monday and Tuesday also, and started making some ointment. And I mailed off some watercolor cards.

I like animals snoozing with curtains billowing.

Wednesday I got to stay home. By this time I was practicing piano a lot; I accompanied half the concert, and the Broadway pieces are big, bangy, and tricky.  I think I packaged a batch of soap that day too.

Thursday I went to Prayer Shawl and then taught a piano lesson. Adam and I ran errands. We all know how that can develop into an afternoon excursion. More piano practicing. More ointment making. Perhaps I made insect-repellent lotion bars that day too?

"Green Goo" - wonderful healing ointment

By Friday I was nervous about the concert. Dress rehearsal that evening.

On Friday I made this little video:

It's not easy keeping life together!
I did tidy my studio that day and finished all my soap-business products. Dress rehearsal was long.

Saturday morning Adam and I went to the farmer's market in Oriental. It was the town's annual yard sale day, and folks were up early, sorting through each other's cast-offs. But I had a very profitable day: $190 in sales. $30 of that was plants from the greenhouse! This time of year I sell every insect-repellent lotion bar I make, each week.

We rested all afternoon. I practiced again and began vocalizing -- I had a solo also. It's a fun, lively song called "He Never Failed Me Yet," a gospel spiritual by Robert Ray. I've sung it before, and this time I directed it too. But my voice was tired and refused to cooperate while vocalizing. The choir likes me to end the piece -- the last note with them -- on a high B-flat. I didn't think my voice would agree to that last night. But when the moment came and their smiling faces looked at me expectantly, I sang it. We had lots of fun.

I swiped this photo and the one above from a facebook friend.

After the concert I was very tired, and after church today Adam and I both turned down our engines to "idle" and will try to go a little slower. While I was doing all this, this week, he was mowing and weeding the entire garden, plus his usual pastoral and preaching tasks, plus cooking, plus working hard to start up his own podcast. (That's another subject I'll tell you about later.) 

About 7:00 today I took this video as I strolled back across the pasture from the garden:

Peace.
We all long for peace.
Jesus promises peace, but it's not the kind we're used to seeing in the world, and not the way we normally see people trying to get peace. That's a mystery I have yet to unravel. I may not understand yet what Jesus's peace is like, or how to get it, but I know what the world's peace looks like, and I know it doesn't work. I can see that from the people I know who try to find peace on their own. What's the old joke we used to tell?  If you try to get away for a few days from the stress of your life, the only problem is that you take it with you, because YOU go along!? My lack of peace is within me. Only an inner change can bring peace.

As Adam preached this morning, a little phrase from I Corinthians 13 caught my mind: "Love does not insist on its own way." This is one way the world (well, perhaps I should call it by its proper name: Social Media) tells me I can have peace -- by having my own way. By rejecting the people around me that don't add to my happiness. By demanding everyone adjust to my stress level. By insisting all behaviors comply to my standards. By saying with confidence, "Folks, it's my way or the highway!"

No peace is found that way, only loneliness and a nagging feeling of discontent. I think Jesus was most peaceful after He'd struggled in the garden, hating the task before him, longing to escape it, but in the end bowing to the will of God, to the plan. I think peace like that must be found in some sort of acceptance and compliance with a divine plan that we can't always make sense of.

Adam made a small bed just for my plantain.

See? That was a rambly post, and got preachy at the end. Sorry. I hope you all have a lovely week! See you later.