Falling into Autumn/Out of the Express Line ... by Jocelyn Faire

Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry John Piper

“Sometimes these are the slowest lines,” the white haired customer ahead of me lamented. I agreed adding that this was my second slow express line of the day; I'd been at Walmart that morning and was certain the lady ahead of me could not count, clearly she was over the limit. “If this is your second express line today, you might be a slow learner. But,” he paused, “I'm guessing we both have enough time that we shouldn't be hurried.” My response included a chuckle, “Well, looking at the others in this line, I'm guessing that overall you and I have less time left in our lives, and I don't want to be wasting it in a slow line at Safeway.” With a twinkle in my eye I added, “I also don't buy green bananas anymore.”

     When observing others, I think of aging as the autumn season of life, a kind of unhurried time. There are parts of this I love ... the slow down after a busy summer, the cooler weather, the invite to sit by a fire, the harvest time of apples, and the way autumn carries itself with an elegant mature beauty. While I want this season to feel unrushed and want ample time to be still and know that I am God, the harsh reality is that life continues in busy format, unless I do something about it. While in her early nineties my mother expressed that time still passed too quickly for her, even though she spent much of the day in her chair with few tasks on her to-do list. She spent her time remembering. 

     One of my favourite theologian poets John O Donohue said “In the autumn of your life, your experience is harvested ... Aging invites you to become aware of the sacred circle that shelters your life ... In fact if you come to see aging not as the demise of your body but as the harvest of your soul, you will learn that aging can be a time of great strength, poise and confidence." My sister-in-law believes people's character distills over time, both the best or worst have potential to grow stronger.

     I've come through quite a long season of transition ... Feb 2020 will mark the fifteenth year that two of my children went to Heaven ... to say it has been a journey would be the biggest understatement of my life. In the last decade, I have lived on two different continents in five different places, undergone divorce, ended my nursing career, began writing, met many, good-byed many, remarried, blended two families. The highway of transition has been a rich, difficult and beautiful journey with much time spent both in the desert and by the nourishing river waters. Change is constant, but self-initiated change is always more welcome than change thrust upon us. And now I find myself in a new season ... and it takes adjustment as well ... you see we never arrive at a place without some baggage from the previous season. As obvious as it is, our today, is not exactly a brand new slate. We may enter the autumn phase having undergone a wet spring, a dry summer, a late frost, a freak hail storm. And seasons do not end precisely on their designated equinox days ... chinooks do happen.

     When I ponder the question Jesus asked Bartimaeus: What do you want me to do for you (now)? I wonder what do I want? Reversal of time does not happen. Through the grief journey, I feel as though I “lost” some of my productive years ... and yet, while on the healing road, there was/is no point in hurrying. I knew I did not need to explain to God my hours spent in reflection and contemplation. While I lived my life solo, I had no one's task oriented life to measure mine against. Now that I have remarried, with a husband who works half time, I feel as if my productivity is once again measured by tasks done. This is more my perception than his. In her book Jesus Calling, Sarah Young tells us that spending time with God can be a difficult discipline because it goes against the activity addiction of this age. You may appear to be doing nothing, but actually you are participating in battles going on within spiritual realms. Last Sunday morning I passed a little girl on training wheels calling out ... Help Mommy, I'm stuck and can't move. At times I feel like I'm still spinning my training wheels, not going anywhere. It's not God's measurement I'm up against, it's my own, as perceived by others. Perhaps the man at Safeway was right, perhaps I am a slow learner.

     With God's help, I want this to be a slow down time to take in the elegant beauty of fall and share from my harvest those who need its gleanings. This week my new granddaughter and I were picking leaves in awe of the rich reds. To take a line from a gardening show ... I've matured into foliage. And isn't that a beautiful thing!

Christmas Countdown ... by Jocelyn Faire

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom. (Ps 90:12 NASB)

Only five days and we can breathe a sigh of relief. Christmas will be done for another year ... but, that is not how I want it to be. I'm not ready to move into January. I long for magical moments still to happen. How was I to know that the Christmas season would usher in unwanted emotional challenges? My husband of two years came with his own December angst. When we married in December 2016, we had enough excitement over new beginnings that the ghost of Christmases past was subdued. Harold and I both have a significant grief history, sadness mixes with the joy of seasonal celebrations. I had already learned to navigate my own Christmas with Spirited intention. My present quest is to bring spiritual depth into our combined celebrations.

First, I asked my daughters-in-law to let me know about grand-kid Christmas programs ... we wanted to attend. This past Sunday, we donned our gay apparel for 9am. (Unaware that it was ugly Christmas-sweater Sunday) We arrived with two non-performer granddaughters as the singing began. I shepherded the girls through the giant foyer of food options, sign in options with large overhead screens playing. I thought I was in the food court of the city shopping mall. As we entered the amphitheater... I realized I should have brought binoculars. We would never spot one tiny Brynn and her sister Taya on that massive stage of singers. Maybe it was the fog machine that blurred our vision, but the jumbotron came to came to the rescue as the cameras panned over the exuberant angel choir.

As I pondered how to keep the message of the shepherds and angels relevant, I realized my best preparation was to ready my heart with quiet moments, so that when chaos and madness erupted, I would have calm and grace to respond. Cease striving/Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

This morning after what I hoped was the final grocery shop, I planned for a personal God and me coffee break at the park. McDonald's coffee and muffin to the rescue. My own words to my daughter, when she was busy with three young children, came to me: sometimes you're in the drive-through blessing moments of life, you have to pick up encouragement on the run. So as I got to the drive through, I pressed the knob to roll down the window and nothing, I tried again, still nothing. It had frozen shut in last evening's rain. I had to open my door to order, pay and pick up. I laughed at the lesson: a window opened just a slit was not big enough for the size of Grace ... I needed the doors wide open. God set the lighter tone. Those twenty minutes with God and coffee were wonderful and had me smiling on the inside and out. The

snow began to fall, and I noticed tiny perfectly formed flakes land on my windshield. (pictured on the right) Incredibly delicate beauty right before my eyes. Another lesson: when the stress rises, recognize the tiny bits of grace that also arrive.

And that grace was put to the test immediately. I arrived home with groceries. Harold went to put items in the freezer, and I heard a soft thud and a groan from downstairs. Are you ok? I called racing down, and there he was moaning, on his knees. Thoughts of a heart issue had been immediate, but I was relieved it was just his back. Although, I know this can debilitate him for up to a week, (just in time for Christmas to be finished).

So teach me to number my days that I may present to you a heart of wisdom and gatherings of grace. I know the gifts don't wrap themselves, nor do ingredients form themselves into a meal, nor do back spasmed husbands help much. But with God's help, I can be calm and grace-filled, and we will all have a more wonderful Christmas. 

And my gift to you is this reading from one of my favorite inspirational books: The One Year book of Bible Promises by Ruth Harms Calkin

Lord, I asked you for abundant life

And You said Yes.

I asked you for an undisturbable joy

Independent of transitory change

And You said Yes.

I asked you to thread my tears into a song

When I was shattered and torn with grief

And You said Yes.

I asked you to steady me when I staggered—

To hold me when I struggled

To seize me when I resisted

And You said Yes ...

I asked you to be my Helper, my Friend

My Light in the darkness,

I asked you to guide me all my life

With Your wisdom, Your counsel

Your captivating Love

And You said Yes ...

You overwhelm me with joy

For you love to say Yes! 

He came into a broken world 2000 years ago ... He still comes to broken hearts today.

Blessings as you walk with He who loves to say Yes, into 2019

PS-I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions on how to make  the story meaningful for kids, thanks.

Refreshed and Ready - Glynis Belec

   It's not that I have any super powers. Nor am I a brilliant writer. and no, rejection is not unknown to this Ontario gal.  But I just can't ever remember having writer's block.

  I do have something else, though. I have another affliction called "Lackofopportunityitis".

     I have SO much to write. But little opportunity to do it it seems these days. My ideas bubble forth like an overflowing glass of hastily poured club soda.  I write down idea after idea. I record inspiration after inspiration. My ledger has sticky note after sticky note grasping pages. I subscribe to a sticky note software program and on any given week I have purple stickies filled with ideas about what to write, multiplying like mosquitoes in a stagnant pond on my screen.

     But I am not complaining. I am actually grateful to God that He fills my world and every waking moment (and sometimes the sleeping ones, too) with ideas about what to write. I know my season is not here yet, where I am able to sit in my office and write prolific pages for hours on end. My interruptions are reasonable and necessary so I am happy to write whenever I can. Caring for some pretty special people in my life is an honour and I try not to resent not having the privilege of writing for extended periods.

                                  God has me right where he wants me so no complaints here.

 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.

                                                                                1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

     I do talk to writers who are troubled a little with writer's block. I try not to be impolite and I try to understand the issue. Then I sometimes wonder what it might be like to have writer's block and how I would handle it if I did deal with it. I understand it is real for some writers so as someone who loves to help other writers, I thought I would share a few ideas on how to combat writer's block.

     This first idea, I actually tried, just because it seemed a fun thing to do. I was listening to a webinar the other day as I was cooking dinner. I stopped chopping the carrots when they got to the 'free stuff'. I didn't want to miss out. One of the things I saw was a website that helped bloggers who didn't know what to write.

1.   http://buildbookbuzz.com/cool-tool-hubspots-blog-topic-generator 

     This handy dandy cool tool is called HubSpot's Blog Topic generator. It doesn't do the writing for you, but it sure does help you think of ideas. I am all in for fun things, too. What you do is you enter three nouns and then they randomly find ideas for you to write about, including tentative titles. How neat is that? Has anyone seen this or tried it before? Check it out. You never know.

2.  http://www.daydreamingonpaper.com/random.html

     Then I came across this Daydreaming on Paper site. It's interesting, too, and provides inspiration at the press of a button. It asks you questions and then makes you think.

3.  http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

    This website is a neat prompt when you are totally out of ideas. I use it with my writer's group for homework sometimes. You pick a random number and then press it for the prompt.  Sometimes you can even get inspiration for blog posts. Our group loves it and it plays like a game.

4. http://www.plinky.com/

     Plinky is a straightforward site that offers you thought-provoking questions/comments/prompts. Often it asks you about an emotion and how something made you feel and so on. Plinky's tagline is 'You have answers, we have questions!'  Give it a try and see if it stirs your muse.

Check these out if you are having troubles figuring out what to write. Check them out for fun, too, even if you are like me with a plethora of ideas begging to be written into a story.

Remember that writer's block can be an opportunity to be still and listen to what God has planned; a time to refuel and rethink. (Being still and listening is always a good thing whether one has writer's block or not, too.) But when those deadlines beg and time ticks on, then sometimes we need a little inspiration.

Be Still and Know that I am God. Psalm 46:10




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Glynis lives, loves, laughs and does an awful lot of reading, writing, publishing and praying in her home office. Her latest childrenbook - Hopeful Homer - offers hope and encouragement to anyone who might find herself in 'the pit'. 

Check out Glynis's bookstore here

From Martha, With Love... by Glynis M. Belec

Blogging...one more thing to do. Mary often chides me for my hectic schedule but what can I do? The demands are great. Perhaps if my young idle sister would step in to help, maybe I could find more time to present my words thusly via this blog.  Economy of time. I know...Economy of material...I know. Economy of spirit...never! There is no compromise and God knows my heart.

Jesus will come soon for a meal. He drops in periodically for a time of refreshment, renewal and I think, escape. I long for His strength and even an iota of the wisdom he proffers each day to the people.

The people. Oh, the people. Constantly demanding Jesus' attention. The pressure He must feel. But one would never know.

I feel pressure, too. But when I consider what Jesus goes through each day, my pressure pales in comparison. He talks to so many hurting souls. Every moment of the day, it seems, He heals broken bodies, broken lives, broken spirits. If He is not healing, He is sharing prolific words about the Kingdom of God. I know I should take more time, like Mary does. I mean to. I really do. But then my work beckons and before I know it I am up to my ears in the demands of the day. I do hear Jesus speak, though.

"Multi-tasking Martha" they call me. I do love my Lord, but there are days when I long to have the inclination of Mary and toss the guilt aside that I feel if my hands are not busy with a chore. My personality is one that includes fussing and fuming if something is not exactly done to my specifications.

But this day, as I clack out this blog, I am beginning to feel something. I am starting to realize that perhaps I am frittering my days away with good intentions. I need to toss away the tendency for perfection. I must make a better effort to simply be still and know that Jesus is Lord. Maybe it's okay to sit a spell. I know I will always be concerned about the food and the home and the people who grace my four walls. But perhaps it is high time I fuss less over the pomegranates and persimmons and more over the Creator of such and Giver of life.

Oh, I think I hear Jesus knocking. The time has come for me to greet my most welcomed Guest. But first I must straighten the cloth and prepare the bowl so He can wash the dust from His feet. The oven has to be prepared and then the vegetables scrubbed...