Morning – Life's Prequel

Wandering

When one wanders about a foreign neighbourhood one finds all sort so possibilities.

The neighbours are enlightening.

The paths enlivening.

The fields inspiring.

The sky inviting.

Beauty of Truth; Beauty of Light

There is something about light.

It changes everything.

When the truth of one’s history is concealed by intent to obscure and accuse others, to blame others for ones own weaknesses,

There is not much that can be done,

Until the light shines in even a little bit.

And the marvelous stuff is this:

we know the beauty that is hidden without light,

the truth that will be exposed,

the hope that is all that can be.

And then when the light shines completely

What once was hidden will shine forth.

It is gorgeous in the right light.

And there is not a thing that is lost to truth, except the lie.

There are times, too often, when I sleep not a wink between the hours of 2 and 4.
Last night was one of them.
And having arrived at 10, unloaded the truck until 12 and talked on the phone until 1, I had a few things to put in order.

This table, from IKEA, won my heart and I knew I would buy it
despite the fact I had plans to build my own table, had bought the wood, and hardware, and had the time planned to do it all.
So why? I had to ask myself, and it dawned on me before I picked it up and put in on my cart along with the two bookshelves I had gone there to get. Well I’d actually gone for one shelf, a Billy, blond, but the cost was $99 and these while were 2/3s the width, 7/8s the height, and slightly narrower, I decided two of them would be better than one Billy. So for $58 two shelves came home with me.
But the table. What was it?
I built a house a decade or so ago. And put in kitchen cupboards … from IKEA in Minneapolis, since they were from there 2/3 the cost of anywhere in Canada and it was too pricey to ship from California.
And after the dust settled, and I’d assembled and mounted the cabinets and finished the house, they were one of the huge success stories of those building years: they cost about $2k compared to other cupboard installs that would have cost anywhere from $4k to $9k, were easy to install correctly (comparatively) and they looked fabulous! and the design of the kitchen was terrific, big enough, with lots of drawers and doors in the right places!
And to fit with the rest of the house that had pine doors and pine trim I choose the pine cupboards.

This table has the same finish! As do my dressers!

And the pieces for the other table are here, ready for working into a table, assembly required!
And it should be quite the table too, with a leaf to insert to extend it from 48×32 to 48×48.

Already in place, the functional, pine, lovely kitchen table that has so many emotional connections with it already!

All in a nights work!

Colour Blindness and Darkness

There is little that’s heard
and so much to say.
The radio reports a male’s voice about his mother
being beaten by his father, and verbally abused continually, only when he was drunk.
Horrendous … and we meet this with numerous efforts … still hardly enough.
But there is little to nothing said or believed about how
women too often manipulate, control, deride, blame and verbally abuse
the men closest to them in their lives.
And when the woman owns the house, is the sole guardian of the children, and is the boss at work …
the opportunities to manipulate, control, deride, blame and verbally abuse multiply out of control.

And the justice system, well focused at protecting women from violent men,
is so blind to the women that bring false complaints about their men being violent, when this is just yet another lie, a manipulation, a power trip, a derision, a blaming, and real life abuse of their men.
The justice system takes these men, and judges them, convicts them, punishes them (tossing them out of their home, cutting them off from the abusive women and their own children that rely on them) and intimidates them (actively disrupting the process of justice that would serve them well and bring them a voice, a fair hearing) … convicted and condemned without a trial.

The light of truth is obliterated by the deadwood of lies, the colour of the life cycle which could be a delight is hidden beyond the darkness of death.

The signs are everywhere, of God’s gifts of beauty, streaming to us in real life through the huge bandwidth of our eyes and brains.

Even the leaves are weeping at the injustices, even the leaves are weeping at the misplaced condemnations, even the leaves are dancing with colour promising, though the darkness will set in, new life will emerge, new life will emerge!

Among the maze of life turning towards the winter cold, the small birds still sing and seek and dance with joy.

Where are you?

Do you seek to give every abused victim a voice?

Can you tell the difference between a real complaint of male violence against women, and the complaint that is further abuse?

How can you see behind the curtain?

How can you see past the deadness of manipulative abuse, to see the light of hope and love?

Where is your joy today?

Finding oneself in Work?

Love is foremost,
but meaningful labour is second most significant,
as the leaves turn in a night
and the clouds hang ready to empty their weight again
and the sun peaks out to shine a moment
as the stragglers for the oil field turn the corner
toward meaningful labour for their Monday.

But all our efforts in comparison to God’s display of beauty for us are

so small.

Love Trumps Everything, as the determiner of life, of our perspective on everything

Love is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in life, it is the key.
Our success in love is rarely determined by who we are with,
it is always determined by the person we are with the other.
(Unless our other is a narcissist and/or abusive –
or if our other is physically beating us up –
not some concocted story of violence, but our getting actually hit!),

And there is always a way to love the person we are with,
it’s called DOING forgiveness.
(even the narcissist, abuser, or beater,
though they just hurt us back!
Don’t I know! though I’m committed to forgiving for a year,
so is it worth it in the end?)

It’s too easy to feel trapped in but cut off from love.

It’s easier to run wild

look in the sky for answers

or lose oneself in busyness and work

But when beauty sets into one’s eyes

Then one sees clearly

How delightful God created us to be with each other.
How spectacular God created us to be, giving to each other.
A patch here, a foolishness there, a clowning for healing there.
Here’s a chocolate for you, a touch of humour for you,
a word of kindness for you, a helping hand for you and you,
forgiveness for your betrayal and lies for you,
a gentle touch of encouragement for you,
a word of hope for you,
an honest word of your company’s debauchery for you
and your company’s dishonesty for you,
a call to move beyond triangulation for you,
an invitation for you,
a word of profound thanks and gratitude for all you who respond with honest purity, kindness, and grace.

And we end up being specular light for each other,
the light that is all bent out of shape because it’s God’s light,
sent through each of us, to light up the world for others,
but as it passes through us it cannot be but scrambled and bent and diffused,
which is exactly why it turns everything it lights up, into precious golden gems.
Which is exactly what chosen, planned, worked at with discipline, and achieved and experienced love does for us all day long,
it turns everything into golden precious gems.

But how can spectural light be stolen?
Who would step on God’s parade of forgiveness and new life,
of transforming death into life,
of specular light’s delight,
and rip it from mid air and place the light in detention?
Afraid the light could hurt us?
Afraid the light would expose the darkness. Yes!
But there is no reason for fear,
for though forgiveness requires confession, confession
after unconditional forgiveness is already promised and exercised without reserve –
confession prepares one for new life!
and for all the delights of specular light!

By Grace trust can grow.
And the darkness will be overcome, replaced and dissolved with forgiveness, the basis of love.