Mountain Fox

My mountain friend sent me this picture.  She feeds her fox friends from her fingers.  How different our viewpoints!

Outfoxed

We thought those darling baby foxes, the ones who wrecked my bushes and stole garden gloves and generally created havoc, had grown up, traveled to Longmont, forgotten us.  Not so.  Recently two of them (I'm sure they are the same ones because they nodded amicably to me) curled up in my side yard for long naps.  And yesterday one curled up under my Chinese cherry bush, right outside my study window.  Red and bushy tailed, and I know if I could touch him, he'd be soft as butter.  But what if he is a she and I have to face six more darling baby foxes, the ones....

Journal entry: April 4, 1987

Yes, indeed. 1987. I think this is just as true today as it was then. What do you think? 

I feel UGLY today. When I'm having an ugly day, do others see me the
way I see myself? Do they see the clothes I'm wearing make my face
look like a jaundiced map of China? Are they aware that my
fingernails haven't been filed, my nail polish is three weeks old and
I forgot my deodorant this morning? Are they conscious of the fact
that even the nice hot shower, mega dose of mascara and bright red
lipstick haven't helped? Do they realize I've been letting my hair
grow out for five months and I've resembled the flying nun when it's
down or a skinned onion when it's up in a ponytail? Does everyone
observe these things? Now that I'm having more than one UGLY day a
week, four days ago I had my hair cut and layered.

No one noticed.

Time to Reflect on the New Year

It's the last day of January already! Here, it's cold and snowy, as
it is just about everywhere. The Flatirons outside my window are
shrouded in fog and rime clings thickly to the trees. Did you make
any resolutions thirty-one days ago? Did you resolve to be kinder and
more patient or to eat healthier or not to spend money you don't
have? I resolved to not resolve, not to make self-imposed rules I
couldn't keep. I decided to read and pray the Psalms most days, copy
a page or two for my new writing project when I could, and to let my
hair grow to my knees so when summer finally comes, I'll have a long
gray ponytail and become a true Boulderite! I like the no rule part
best. I'll probably get my hair cut tomorrow.

Let's face it...living is a struggle. Worries and problems abound in
everyones life. Psalm 16:8 says: I know the Lord is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. See? I'm only on
Psalm 16! Last year I would have thought I had to be on Psalm
31...one for each day of the month. But this year I'm going slower,
savoring the words without my own rules to drive me crazy. Psalm
16:11 says: Show me the way of life and grant me the joy of your
presence. Selah!

The Lord is the shade on your right hand

This morning the above words from Psalm 121 fairly leapt out at me, the image so clear that I glanced immediately to my right to see the shade; I almost thought I could.  Often what I read in the morning is gone by mid-day, but now, three hours later, I am still thinking, seeing, breathing the certainty that the Psalmist put those words down for me, for me.

If my God is shading me, he is not very far away at all.  In fact, he is right here beside me, ready to catch me if I fall, ready to protect me, ready to give me comfort, ready, with the touch of his hand, to keep me from saying something hurtful.  His presence here, with me, for always.  It’s another of those thin places in my day:  when the reality of the limitless nudges, even pushes over on its heels, my own flawed vision of the same.  Move over, child: here comes the actual, the powerful, the loving, the eternal.

This is Sunday:  don’t you need a little God-breathed thin place?

Christmas at the Post Office

It’s not what you think.  It is not about the long line (it was a long line but an employee was offering Hershey’s chocolates to sweeten the minutes); it is not about the half-hearted attempts to visually represent Christmas without really representing Christmas (the employees tried).  This is about a serendipitous happening, a joyous, whacky, and meaningful interchange between four strangers who a half hour later had become fast friends.

Carrie is a grad student from Pittsburgh.  Carol, Mary Ann, and I are grandmothers. We four stood in line today, eyeing the clock.  I don’t know how the conversation started; I entered midstream. Apparently Carol had asked if Carrie had found a church, which I think took courage in this wide-open, largely non-churched town.  Then Carol looked at me and said, “Don’t you go to First Pres?”  From there we whipped into frenzy of church suggestions for Carrie.  Mary Ann was best at this, for she, like Carrie, is a Catholic.  Much laughter, happy voices sharing; did the rest of the post office crowd hear, or care?

Still in the line, we barely knew when we moved up.  Never have I enjoyed waiting so much. 

Now the conversation shifted to the movie “A Christmas Story,” featuring a boy’s deep desire for a red air rifle.  How crazy was this?  I was the only one of the four who hadn’t seen it, and I began to think my boys with their long-ago BB gun fixation should see it, and my husband as well, for he keeps one of those rifles by the back door to discourage raccoons, foxes…(don’t share this in our animal-glorifying town).  Carol whipped the DVD out of her purse for she had bought it this very morning, before her daughter reported they already had it.  “Do you want it?,” she asked me, half joking.

Carrie, the grad student, has to be both the most polite and real young woman I’ve met in a long time.  She hid her shock at being almost swallowed by three gray-haired women, willingly shared our conversation.  Was she simply caught?  No, I don’t think so.

I now have three new friends. We are four who love Jesus, as Carol so succinctly expressed.  Will we meet at the post office again?  Heaven, perhaps?

A half hour packed with laughter and love, with a movie purchase for a bonus.  I’m going to watch it with my grandchildren.

Chaos, Cookies and Comfort

I admit I'm rather hum-buggy this time of year, when my heart should
be filled with joy and peace. Company, shopping, wrapping,
decorating, cooking, cleaning,baking and on and on! It seems never to
end! So much chaos in mind, body and spirit, this time of advent
sometimes gets lost. So I was thinking. What if I try to pray songs
every day, as the old hymns are often prayers in themselves. Here's
my prayer: O Lord of the Universe, with whom we can have an actual
relationship because of your grace and mercy, we sing to you this
prayer. What a friend we have in Jesus! You bear our sin and grief
when we carry everything to you in prayer. Great is your faithfulness
and how we have needed all your hand provides. We need you every
hour, most gracious Lord. Our desire is for a closer walk with you,
so have your own way in our lives. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness
and drive the dark of doubt away! Bring us comfort and joy as we seek
to bring comfort and joy to others in your name. Our faith looks up
to you and we surrender all we have and are. In Your name we pray,
Amen.

Blessed Christmas to you all.