Live now

My grandmama was a wise old soul
Took me by the hand not long ago
Said, "Son, what's your hurry, boy, slow it down
Taste the wild honey, listen to the sound
Of the wind that's blowin' through the trees
Rivers flowin' to the sea
Yeah, they're all headin' home, just like you and me
Life's for livin', child, can't you see?

These are the days we will remember
These are the times that won't come again
The brightest of flames becomes an ember
And you've gotta live 'em while you can

These Are the Days -- Keith Urban


"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows. " James 1:17

butterscotch sonnet

I remember my grade 8 teacher reading this sonnet in class, and how the language absolutely captivated me. So, being the nerd I was (and never really grew out of being) went home and proceeded to memorize it.
You could say "You're beautiful, and nothing, not even time will change that," OR, if your name happens to be William Shakespeare, you could blow all other attempts out of the water, and pen something like this:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd
With every fair from fair some times declined
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'est
Nor shall Death brag thou wander 'st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time, thou grow'est
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee

It's like words made out of butterscotch pudding.

Seeds

As I sat on my couch a few days ago, feverish and achy and generally out of it, I decided I had better increase my intake of Vitamin C. So I sluggishly dragged myself to the fruit bowl and grabbed an orange. As I peeled it, I began salivating at the prospect of its juicy deliciousness. But as I pulled the segments apart, and popped one into my mouth, I was met with a most unwelcome surprise.
Seeds. And not just those tiny ones; these were big. And not just one, but FOUR in the first segment of orange alone! I was rather put out, but I put them on my plate and plugged on, assuming the next segment would cause this orange to regain my better opinion. It, and the segments to follow, however, produced just as many, if not more seeds than the first! By the time I had finished the orange, I was strangely annoyed. I stared at the rather impressively large handful of seeds this small piece of fruit had contained, and realized, with amazement, that I had hardly noticed the taste of the orange itself. I had so looked forward to the sweet and juicy flavour, but had missed it almost entirely because I was focused on the seeds.
How often do we do this with our lives? Perhaps that's too large of a question. Just take one day as an example. How often do we let the things that disappoint or annoy us in the course of a day completely overpower the sweetness of the day itself? How easily we forget that in his love and mercy God gives us each new morning as a fresh beginning. Lamentations 3:23 says, " Because of the LORD's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
May God give us the eyes of faith to see past the "seeds" in our days, and to rejoice in the incredible love and mercy He shows us each morning!

Po-e-try, easy as 123 (or ABC?)

I so wish I could claim authorship of the genius below, but alas, I must simply say that I was amused enough to share.

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

Little thing: a thundering downpour on a warm day. spring is here :)

a golden tidbit

Greet everyone as a fellow guest on his way to the banquet.
Laugh out loud because there is more to find that is funny about you than there is about anyone else. Don't take yourself too seriously. The Lord, if He so chooses, will use you when you are most vulnerable -- just so the recipient doesn't get confused with who is the bearer and who is the Christ.

--Marti Fischer

12 weeks today!

That's how long I've been in the lovely town of Fisherville. It's hard to believe! So much has happened since I last wrote that I hardly know what to say first. And I know that no matter how much I write, I am still going to forget things I so wish that I could share. Guess I'll just do my best...
Fisherville may be a small town, but as I've been hearing from more and more people as the weeks go by, that I've done and seen more cool things than a lot of people who have been living here their entire lives. Guess the newcomer's eyes just see differently...
So here are a few things I've been up to in the recent weeks:

Making bread -- a wonderful lady from church had me over a few weeks ago, and instilled a love for fresh bread in me, along with the skills to make my own! I've been making it every Monday (my glorious day off) since then.

I flew a plane -- a middle aged man from church has a little 2 seater plane in a hanger (storage spot) about 45 minutes from Fisherville. When I learned this, I mentioned that if he ever needed a passenger, he knew who to call! He took me flying a couple of weekends later. Last Saturday, actually. We headed out early in the morning, and flew north to Collingwood, which is on a southern bay of Lake Huron, and had brunch there. I have never seen such beautiful fall colours in my entire life. Looking down, with the sky so clear and blue, the sun seemed to set fire to the patches of trees between the fields in their spectacular yellows, oranges and reds. Lake Huron was so clear and greeny blue, it could have easily been a tropical ocean. But perhaps the best part of it all, was that Terri (the pilot) let me fly the plane. I had complete control for a solid half an hour during the return trip. There are few things I've experienced in my life cooler than the feeling of controlling an aircraft. I can't even describe how awesome that was.

I drove a combine-- That's what you use for harvesting crops, in case you didn't know. It's a mammoth machine. And it was awesome. A few people were a little jealous when they found out. But the opportunity came up, so I went for it. It was kind of like mowing a huge lawn. Of soybeans.

I learned to make grape juice -- that was actually the evening after I got back from flying with Terri. The pastor's wife had me over, and we made juice...and jelly, actually, but the juice was th exciting part for me...from a bunch of concord grapes from a local market. It takes 6 weeks for the juice to be ready, so I've got a bunch of jars juicing away in my cupboard as we speak!

I went to a guernsey banquet -- what on earth is that, you ask? Well. My good friend, Amy, is the president of the Young Farmers...which is a national organization...of young farmers, I suppose. Anyway, she was involved in hosting this banquet for the guernsey club that includes our county and the surrounding ones. This club, as best as I could figure, participates in shows throughout the year on various regional and national levels, with their guernsey cows. So yes, the banquet was attended by Amy's family, a whole slew (like 5) families of guernsey farmers, a bunch of elderly people who came to support the club...and perhaps because there was a phenomonal turkey dinner served, and an adorable country band that provided waltzing and square dancing tunes following the meal....and there was me. It was definitely an interesting experience. It kind of reminded me of a family reunion in some ways. The dancing especially. It was pretty old school. But it was great. I did get to waltz a couple of times with some people who knew Amy's family...none of the younger people really danced. Probably didn't know the steps. Well I certainly didn't either, and I'm sure the old people who were watching got their week's amusement watching me realize that what they called a "waltz" was pretty far off anything I've ever been taught as having that name. Again, though, it was truly a lot of fun. Not something you see in the city, that's for sure!

So there are a few things I've been up to. I know there are more. So you'll hear from me again I'm sure. If I don't write for a while, I welcome you to email me and ask me to put something up! I don't have a clue how many people even read this. But there you have it. And I fear I must now end this post. I'm due to meet my lovely tennis partner at the courts in about 12 minutes. And they are 10 minutes away. Until next time! :)

Little thing: Sat outside on the lawn and read in the warm sunshine. How often can you say that at the end of October??

Storytime with Kaitlyn

Once upon a time, in the lovely town of Fisherville, Ontario, a certain pastor and DPS intern were to attend a winkle (circuit meeting of pastors & church workers) in Beamsville. Though a shortage of maps in the car there certainly were not, the refusal to make use of said maps (*cough* by the one who wasn't driving, who, by the way, was not the dps intern) resulted in the pair of them gallovanting through absolutely spectacular landscape along the escarpment and after nearly 2.5 hours finding themselves in St. Catherines...mere blocks from the seminary, in fact. While one of them was perhaps tempted to crash a seminary class, the lateness of the hour (in combination with better judgment) sadly prevented such shinnanigans. Eventually, however, they came upon the legendary 406 and hightailed it back to Beamsville. Happily, they made it well in time for the pizza lunch. And they may or may not have gotten turned around heading home again, but that, my friends, is another story for another time.