I think Eustace spent too much time on the tractor yesterday while we were gone. He was still working when we got home, and stayed out until after the sun went down. The camel looked positively exhausted when he came in for dinner.
I walked him out to the barn after dinner, just to tuck him in for the night. When I went out this morning to check on the camel, I didn’t have the heart to wake him. He looks so peaceful, doesn’t he? What ever would we do without this cheeky, yet, oh so loveable camel, I wonder. I’ll just be grateful for him being here.
I think we should all have someone like Eustace, don’t you? Someone that always thinks of us, of our health, and of our happiness. You’ll have to find your own, though, because this camel is taken!
Ahhhh, the laws of nature, the laws of Government, and yes, the laws of mankind, themselves. One might pick from any number of lists, in order to locate a law that seems in need of being changed. Would the change even remain, once enacted?
If we’ve learned anything at all regarding the law, it’s that if man is involved in it’s creation, modification, or even dissimilation… it won’t last!
After all these generations of humanity, we still struggle with racism, hate crimes, corporate greed and injustice, along with a completely inadequate educational system. Why is this still occurring? Human Nature, that’s why!
Until we learn that we never had any power in the first place, we’ll never stop making mistake after mistake after mistake!
I vote that instead of trying to find some law that we think we have the power to change, we start giving God the space to start making changes within our very hearts! Big, and very powerful changes are possible from the smallest of humble surrenders. I know who holds the power… and it’s neither you nor me, but God and God alone!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He makes a way!
When I am powerless, unseen, and discarded by a very broken and fallen world, He lifts me up, surrounds me, and covers me with His providence… and His Power! Since I never had the power to change the world on my own, in the first place, I never really lost anything of myself, aside from the fear, shame and self-loathing that usually comes with existence.
Since God’s the only one with any true power to change what needs changing, I choose to let Him do that which I cannot! That’s all I wish to focus on til I get home…
Open the door for a stranger, take someone’s cart back for them, allow a car to merge in front of you, offer a smile to encourage another, or even be bold enough to pay it forward, so to speak.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud… It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (describes the nature of love).
Good events, bad events, and events that are happy or sad, all have one thing in common. They’re all significant!
What we choose to glean from those events, whether we like it or not, will form the perspectives we have later in life.
The things we encounter become our defining hour, not by what we overcame, but how we overcame.
Age, and the passage of time, have taught me that my perspective can be intentional, rather than being brought about from life’s influences.
The only perspective I desire to attain is one shaped by God. If he deems it so, then I allow things of the past to influence my perspective. For example, putting myself in someone else’s shoes, or something like that.
I’m certainly not saying that I don’t think I’ve been influenced by things from the past, because none are immune to it.
I will say this… the experiences I’ve lived through, and those that I put myself through, have all left an indelible mark upon my heart, but from there it’s been my choice whether to be a statistic or a survivor.
The mind is a powerful and complicated thing. We need to take captive every thought, every word, and every perspective. Humans are wishy washy with our attitudes, motives, and yes, our perspectives.
From the beginning of time, God gave mankind the free will to choose their physical, emotional, and spiritual choices. For the most part, we’re terrible choosers! We allow things of this world to control our perspective, but those things are just that… of this world.
When I let go of my own opinions and perspectives, laying them before God, he provides the perspective that should be within my spirit. F.Y.I., I said when I let go, not I always let go.
I tend to build mountains out of mole hills, while God leads me right up over em! Being carried is always a humbling experience, but such a blessing.
God does the heavy lifting, so I’m left to watch him work, and in turn, form a Christ like perspective. When God’s the one in control, there’s life in the learning. That’s what I call influence!
Sometimes, the winds and rain of life’s storms can become so loud and overpowering, all one can do is hold fast to something solid.
All strength has been spent in search of answers, directions and/or solutions to escape the storm’s fury.
But, what if one is meant to endure a storm, rather than escape it? What then?
I find that when things are beyond my control, my understanding, and my own strength… I seek God!
Here’s the place where my thoughts, my opinions, my plans of escape, and the sound of my own voice, need to take a time-out!
God most often will speak softer and quieter, the more agitated and anxious I become. You would think that he would simply raise his voice over my own babbling, just as I would do to my children when they were small.
But I’m not a small child any more. Those days are far behind me, so I’ve no excuse for not listening when my heavenly father counsels his daughter.
Here’s why I am eternally compelled to seek this God that I speak of so often… He whispers!
I’ve had ups, downs, successes, failures, and really big Uh Oh’s!
God has walked with me through each and every storm of my life, whether it was of my own design or something completely undeserved. He stayed, comforted, encouraged, and counseled… but always in the quiet, after I’d settled down into his lap, as it were. I learned a long time ago that when I felt the most anxious, it was because I wasn’t listening for God’s quiet voice.
There were times that I became angry with God for not speaking louder, telling myself that I could have avoided a thing all together, had He spoken up!
The funny thing is, I doubt I would have listened to His counsel anyway… it’s what I often did over the years. You know I like to keep things honest.
I would be less than truthful if I didn’t admit that I still do this on occasion. It gives me hope to know that I live in grace.
I doubt I’ll get all this stuff right in just one little ole earthly lifetime… I’m pretty sure that’s what eternity’s all about.
Now that I’m getting older, it’s even more important that I listen more carefully for His whispers. My hearing isn’t what it used to be. Fortunately, in my case, God often speaks clearly to my heart through scripture.
Even when waters are deep, hold to your faith in Him. May this mornings song encourage you to keep going, even when you are weary, and your strength is gone…
According to Eustace, I should be eating more spinach. In truth, I think we all should!
Lately I’ve been craving it something fierce. I suppose that I probably look and feel a great deal like Olive Oil did, from that old Saturday morning cartoon!
Out of curiosity over my severe cravings, Eustace and I got to reading some things about natural foods.
Check this out! I clipped this off a nutrition calculator:
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
1 cup (180g)
Calories
41
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 0.47g
1%
Saturated Fat 0.08g
0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
0%
Sodium 126mg
5%
Total Carbohydrate 6.8g
2%
Dietary Fiber 4.3g
15%
Total Sugars 0.77g
2%
Includes –g Added Sugars
–%
Protein 5.3g
11%
Vitamin C 17.6mg
20%
Vitamin D 0mcg
0%
Iron 6.4mg
36%
Calcium 244.8mg
19%
Potassium 838.8mg
18%
Phosphorus 100.8mg
8%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
I suppose if we were able to make our pets understand us, we’d have results landing on both sides of the proverbial coin! In one way it would be great if we could help our pets understand why we do some of the things we do, while on the other hand it might backfire, leading to animal world domination!
I personally don’t think it would be the best idea for us to give our pets any more information about us, as I’m not so sure that it would cause them to love us more than they already do… in fact, it might give them cause to rise up and put us in cages, just because WE pooped on the floor.
With that being said, if I could make animals understand deeper about anything humans have done, are doing, or will be doing sometime in the future… it would be to tell them we’re sorry!
Last year I had to rehome my pug of 4 years, as well as my two cats that I found under a shed when they were tiny. I waited for 3 years to get my pug, loving her ever so much… she was my baby! My sister-in-law found a batch of kittens under her porch, keeping one and handing the other two my way… I hand raised both boys from about 10 days old and I adored them! I had to make the most painful decision, last year, of rehoming all of them due to our situation… it was awful!
I guess that if it were possible, I would want to try to explain my actions, and say how sorry I am!
I pray that my choice was for the animals betterment, but it is still difficult to hold the last memories of letting go. Sometimes, doing the right thing does NOT feel good, yet it is still right! I cannot say for sure what they were feeling throughout the painful process, but if I could communicate with them, this would obviously be the conversation on the forefront of our discussion. What would they say… would they forgive me if they understood… maybe.
The best information to give our pets, in the effort of better understanding about us hoomans, would be the knowledge that we often behave in ways that don’t align with our feelings. Often times, we do the right thing for the wrong reason, while at other times, we do the wrong things for the right reasons… it’s what we do!
It’s not all bad, and I didn’t say ALL people, nor did I say ALL the time… it’s just that sometimes the numbers are stacked against us, that’s all!
There’s no way to know if I’ll ever have flurbies journeying with me again… perhaps, perhaps not! Just as our pets probably don’t plan ahead most of the time, thinking to build contingency plans for difficult situations… I would want them to know that often times, we hoomans don’t either!
Issabella PugaliniGhost and Ash
Here, I need a cookie, so you better have one too…
Journey With Me! 