Today- I rested. It was quite lovely. After reading, journaling {according to blogspot spell check that's not a word}, cleaning, devotions, blogging, shower, breakfast... it was only noon. I get antsy when I have no 'plans'. So I decided after an hour of mindless facebooking that I would wander on down to good old Echo Lake.
It was refreshing and I just slept in the sunshine and enjoyed the random instrumental music I discovered on my ipod. After an hour of enjoyment a disturbance worth your time entered the scene. His name?: annoying kid on skateboard. Annoying kid on skateboard sat down on
a bench near me and proceeded to annoy me. {I can't think of any synonyms for a 'annoy' right now.}
You know when you are 'texting' but you're really looking at your phone so you can pretend to be doing something? I love that but not this time. Well, annoying kid on skateboard was 'texting' but not instead annoying kid on skateboard was just staring at me. {Ok- keep in mind he's maybe 15.} I was texting a couple of friends at the time and one suggested I tell annoying kid on skateboard to 'go away' {the polite version of their comment}. I contemplated this possibility for a moment...
Then he moved closer! After annoying kid on skateboard moved closer... I just snapped and blurted out, "Do you need something!?!?" Annoying kid on skateboard looked flustered and shook his annoying kid on skateboard head and quietly stated, "nope." Our annoying kid on skateboard left about fifteen seconds later. I was too annoyed {seriously, I've got nothing!} to go back to sleep that I just left about a half hour later. Kids these days!
I knit. It's what I do. Well, sorta. I finished this washcloth {that's one word?} today. Isn't it cute? It only took me all summer. That's my buddy, Eli, with it. He's a snuggler. ;) Ok, sorry.
It disturbs and annoys me that these pictures are different sizes but alas I have fought with the formatting of this page too much tonight to struggle anymore.
Whilst venturing out in the early morning to determine what to wear for the day- I stumbled upon this beauty growing in my backyard.
I love this flower and may potentially water it to keep it alive. I doubt it but it's a good thought. It reminds me of a chapter in Hinds Feet on High Places.
The heroine, Much-Afraid, goes on a spiritual quest with two companions, Sorrow and Suffering. They face many trials and have to overcome many obstacles along the way. She begins to lay down burdens such as resentment and fear that she has been caring throughout her life.
Here is an excerpt from this fabulous book that I now wish to read again.
"In all that great desert, there was not a single green thing growing, neither tree nor flower nor plant save here and there a patch of straggly gray cacti.
On the last morning {Much Afraid} was walking near the tents and huts of the desert dwellers, when in a lonely corner behind a wall she came upon a little golden-yellow flower, growing all alone. An old pipe was connected with a water tank. In the pipe was one tiny hole through which came an occasional drop of water. Where the drops fell one by one, there grew the little golden flower, though where the seed had come from, Much-Afraid could not imagine, for there were no birds anywhere and no other growing things.
She stopped over the lonely, lovely little golden face, lifted up so hopefully and so bravely to the feeble drip, and cried out softly, “What is your name, little flower, for I never saw one like you before.”
The tiny plant answered at once in a tone as golden as itself, “Behold me! My name is Acceptance-with-Joy!“
Much-Afraid thought of the things which she had seen… Somehow the answer of the little golden flower which grew all alone in the waste of the desert stole into her heart and echoed there faintly and sweetly, filling her with comfort. She said to herself, “He (the Shepherd) has brought me here when I did not want to come, for His own purpose. I, too, will look up into His face and say, ‘Behold me! I am your little handmaiden, Acceptance-with-Joy.’”
I remember reading this passage a few years ago and through quiet sobs repeating those sweet words, "I am your little handmaiden, Acceptance-with-Joy."
Remember to 'stop a sec, hon'. I hope ya'll can 'stop a sec' and enjoy the moments when you see the flower in the desert. Let it remind you and teach you.
Pick of the day: The Cave by Mumford and Sons
Be blessed.
-Shanna
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