Windows to Blue

Night has fallen here in Paris. I walk across an old wooden floor, open the window and look out at the Eiffel tower. Blue with light. It shines cobalt blue. And now it sparkles, hundreds of white lights that look like stars blinking. On and off. The whole galaxy here outside my window, it seems.

To travel is to go nowhere. It's just like being anywhere else, says my Little one. Yet it is also to go a world apart. At times, it feels nothing is familiar. Simple things like faucets, locks, subways suddenly become adventures in living.

I notice things like... many people here wear scarves, and they tie them in a unique looping fashion. Even the old homeless man who emerges from the metro... he wears a scarf, blue like the sky. And on Sunday afternoons, people here walk with a liquid smoothness.

The children have lilting voices, Mama! they cry. Children with cropped hair, confident eyes, strong simple clothes in plain dark colors. And I... I feel like a child... my language eclipsed... sure, I can speak to get by, but my writer self is put aside and instead my eyes and ears are tuned to sights and sounds, while I stay mostly silent.

Silent, mostly, except for a lot of Merci! and S'il vous plait. Thank you, please. Gratitude expressed, mercy asked. Please and please and thank you. In a way, to travel is to go nowhere. But in a way, it is to get outside oneself, to fall out of one's little window, to go a world apart, to come back to simple please and thank you. Gratitude and mercy, language universal.

A Place to Play

I remember when I was new to blogging, and I read one of the big blogging gurus. He described his blog as a living room.

Every living room is different. In some, you can put your feet up. Others have plastic on the furniture. I like to think of mine as a place to play. To share, if you will, the songs of our hearts...whether these be fiddle, oboe or folk guitar.

At the risk of stretching the metaphor or being too sappy, let's say I especially love it when we play together. How I love the music! And at the risk of causing someone to drop his pick, I'd also like to share a small request. (Does this group take requests?)

Here it is. And I've done this myself, both here and on other blogs. Quoting the blogger or other commenters, as a way to track my thoughts and provide context.

But now I'm asking... could we perhaps engage in the art of the paraphrase? I'm finding that when we "quote" one another or quote one another, it feels a little more like debate than play.

Someday, when my book is finally out there, I hope you'll feel free to quote my text at length. But here in the living room, I really just want to chat, or jam, or improv... you know, just...play. I hope that's okay.

P.S. If you like my living room, you might like my Sun Room too.


NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Craver's Gettin' aLAWNg

Charity's Welcome to the Kitchen

Maria's Why I Blog

A Little Bedside Reflection

I have not been sick in a long time. Ah, well. Today finds me snuggled in bed on the Sabbath. A cup of homemade tea on my nightstand… raspberry, strawberry, violet and mint leaves with a dash of purple clover flowers, steeped to get-well perfection.

And on my lap (‘til I traded it for the laptop) has been John H. Walton’s Genesis Commentary, compliments of Zondervan.

What better way to spend a sniffly Sabbath? Good tea and good commentary.

In the midst of it all, I had this irresistible urge to write to you. (Pardon me if I sneeze along the way. It might be the symptoms of my illness, or it might be a nervous reaction when broaching a topic of some controversy.)

L.L., you say, “What topic of controversy?” I whisper back, “Election. Not like in who I think will be elected for president… Obama, or Giuliani, or Clinton, but like in election for salvation.”

I suppose this is not a suitable topic for a sick person to approach. Indeed, the healthy and good-natured Craver hosted a lively and friendly discussion on Calvinism last week, which brought up the issue of election.

At the time, as part of one comment, I said…

Abraham was chosen so his people could bring blessing to all people. Eventually, the Israelites lost sight of why they were "chosen." 

I wonder if we too are "elected", not as a club invitation but as chosen ones to go out and bring blessing to the rest of the world... "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation..." (2 Cor 5:18)

Imagine my surprise when I fell upon this, then, today in Walton…

But the larger question concerns the purpose of the covenant. God could make promises without a covenant. The covenant included election, so we must ask, election to what (if not salvation)?

…the structure of Genesis directs our attention to the issue of revelation. Since the knowledge of God had been lost and the concept of God distorted [see Gen. 1-11], God determined to embark on a program of revelation. Abram and his family were elected as instruments of that revelatory program…[Gen 12]” (p.52)

I can hear you now. “Egads, L.L.! Take a nap! Don’t start in with something like this!”

So let me reassure you. I’m not trying to start another discussion on Calvinism. And I’m not in any condition for heated debate. I want, instead, to focus on a practical matter.

See, I find it interesting that Paul structures Romans 1-11 similarly to Genesis 1-12, in the sense that he first sets up the premise that knowledge of God has been lost and distorted. Then he launches into this very confusing (I think) discussion of what we call election.

So, here’s the rub. If Paul is potentially saying that we are elected, not unto salvation, but for the purposes of revelation, how would this affect us on a practical level? I’m going to suggest that the answer begins in Romans Chapter 12.

And, I ask that you have mercy on me, a sick person, and just play along regardless of your theological bent. In other words, I am looking for refreshment, in a discussion that compares the PRACTICAL differences that issue from one view or the other… election unto salvation versus election unto the task of revelation. (It is true that you may have to read Romans 12 in order to play along.)

Okay, and now I see I misled you. This was not a little bedside reflection. It was, indeed, one of the longest posts I’ve ever done. Oh…. pardon me… aaaaaacccchhhoooo!!!


Wisteria Cross photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.

Wise at Heart

A wonderful childhood friend of mine (who apparently lurks here, and wishes I would post more... oh, I'm sincerely sorry I've been slacking, for I've been working so hard on my... uh, book) loves to read.

Sometimes she shares titles with me, especially good young adult and children's titles. I am a good listener, when she so speaks.

That's why I'm having my seven-year-old read me The Ugly Princess and the Wise Fool.

Here's an excerpt that I thought could give us something to think on, both as writers and as leaders of all kinds.

"At that time all wise men wore long white beards, small round spectacles, and black robes, and they always carried leather satchels filled with important papers. They were easy to spot in a crowd. The other people in the kingdom didn't like wise men because they used ten words where one would do, but weren't of any use in a crisis, so nobody felt sorry when King Irwin made them stay indoors.

There, the wise men moped and sneered just as unpleasantly as they had done outside. It didn't occur to most of them that if they just changed their clothes and cut off their long white beards they would be able to go out in the streets again without being recognized. Or possibly they were so proud of being wise men that they would never have dreamed of giving up the image..." p.14

My daughter read that passage. Then she looked up and said, "They must not really be wise men!" Wise child, to see the heart of things.


Photo of Bleeding Heart, on the way to my Secret Place. L.L. Barkat.

Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.


NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

From Shannon's no-nonsense blog (I think he shaved off the beard without regret): Visceral

Work Space: 3

Thinking further on stewardship and work, I liked this quote from Wendell Berry, on the difference between agribusiness and traditional agriculture...

To set this squandering, urban-industrial "agribusiness" against the elegantly conservative traditional agriculture is again to illustrate the difference between imposition and adaptation— between bigotry and force on the one hand and grace and skill on the other.

The Papago adapted farming to their country, and by that adaptation gave it— and themselves— the power to endure as long as the bonds between them and their land remained unbroken. The modern industrial farmers, on the other hand, have forced the country to conform to their way of farming.

So long as their technology and their surplus capital can provide shortcuts, such as pumping groundwater and transporting fuels, this way will "work." But it cannot work any other way, and the signs of its failure are readily apparent to anyone who will take the trouble to look.

I wonder, as I work, if I steward what is in my hand with grace and skill? Do I adapt myself to the needs of others, rather than forcing my way (all in the name of supposedly bringing a blessing)?

It is definitely a challenge to bring forth blooms with humility and sensitivity. And I suppose that when I do not, the signs of my failure might be readily apparent if I take the trouble to look.

Quote from The Gift of Good Land, p.64. Peony photo by Gail Nadeau. Used with permission.


Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.




As you recall over the past two days, TheHighCalling.org is going on blog tour this week, to bring you special ideas regarding the work space. If the issue of humility interests you, try these tour options on for size...

Membership... become a member of TheHighCalling.org Becoming a member allows you to track issues of interest, like humility, right on the HC site.

Membership could also lead to GETTING PAID FOR ONE OF YOUR HUMBLE BLOG POSTS! Check it out.


A High Thought... Leadership by Light


Other tour rest stops...

Green Inventions Central
Gordon Atkinson
Gina Conroy
Craver VII
CREEations
Milton Brasher-Cunningham
Mary DeMuth
Karl Edwards
Emdashery
Every Square Inch
Amy Goodyear
Marcus Goodyear
Al Hsu
Jennwith2ns
Chalres Foster Johnson
Mike McLoughlin
Eve Nielsen
Naked Pastor
Ramblin Dan
Charity Singleton
Stacy
Camy Tang

Enjoy day three of the journey!

Work Space: 2

One of the best books I've read on work is John Beckett's Loving Monday.

In a chapter on stewardship, he reminds me, "Each of us has been given some measure of stewardship responsibility. Often it's so obvious we can't even see it." (p.126)

Then Beckett goes on to share an incident concerning Moses, when God asks him, "What is that in your hand?" Beckett says that Moses saw a plain old stick... one he had held through the desert to steady his steps. But "in God's eyes, it was something altogether different." This was the very stick that God chose to work through, to turn into a serpent before Pharoah.

So, ultimately, the question is, how do I use what is in my hand to nurture, challenge, speak out, and provide for others?

To answer this question, I guess I first have to look at what's in my hand.

Walking Stick photo, by L.L. Barkat.


Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.




As you recall from yesterday, TheHighCalling.org is going on blog tour this week, to bring you special ideas regarding the work space. If the issues of stewardship and gifting interest you, try these tour options on for size...

Membership... become a member of TheHighCalling.org Becoming a member allows you to track issues of interest, like stewardship or gifting, right on the HC site.

Future benefits will offer inclusion in a social networking group on their site (where your blog may be specifically highlighted from time to time).


Audio Encouragment... Ticket to Joyride


Reflection and Prayer... Eugene Peterson, "One Heart and Soul"


Other tour rest stops...

Green Inventions Central
Gordon Atkinson
Gina Conroy
Craver VII
CREEations
Milton Brasher-Cunningham
Mary DeMuth
Karl Edwards
Emdashery
Every Square Inch
Amy Goodyear
Marcus Goodyear
Al Hsu
Jennwith2ns
Chalres Foster Johnson
Mike McLoughlin
Eve Nielsen
Naked Pastor
Ramblin Dan
Charity Singleton
Stacy
Camy Tang

Enjoy day two of the journey!

Work Space: 1

In The Soul Tells a Story, V.H. Wright reminds me that my work is not the be-all and end-all of life. Because my work is writing (which I am passionate about), and because writing is also a form of spiritual discipline for me, this is a difficult message to embrace. Yet it is true. As she says...

Your family is more important than this creative project. The creative project, after all, is something that comes from you, a product of sorts; your partner and kids are other human beings to whom you have made a commitment. So you will carve out a few times in a year when everyone is out of your hair and you can be near the woods. But the rest of the time you will juggle all your loves, some days more successfully than others. The work will still get done. p.78

The work will still get done. And so will the growth-in-God that my work facilitates. And, I suppose if certain things don't get done, that may be okay too.


Family Sculpture with Big Cat and Goat, by Sara, each figure less than a half-inch high. Photo by L.L. Barkat

Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Halfmom's Does My Work Really Matter?




Speaking of work, TheHighCalling.org is going on blog tour over the next three days, to bring you special ideas regarding the work space— including many aspects of work and family; gifts and leadership; excellence; integrity; attitude; professional relationships; and service.

Strikes me as a great resource for sermons, talks, and articles. Also, if you'd like to be encouraged, inspired, or revitalized regarding your work right now, consider these whirlwind tour options...

Membership... become a member of TheHighCalling.org


Clever Parable... A Lens on the World


Inspiring Interview... Eugene Peterson, on hearing God


Awesome Article... A Burning Bush Would Be Nice


Other tour rest stops...

Green Inventions Central
Gordon Atkinson
Gina Conroy
Craver VII
CREEations
Milton Brasher-Cunningham
Mary DeMuth
Karl Edwards
Emdashery
Every Square Inch
Amy Goodyear
Marcus Goodyear
Al Hsu
Jennwith2ns
Chalres Foster Johnson
Mike McLoughlin
Eve Nielsen
Naked Pastor
Ramblin Dan
Charity Singleton
Stacy
Camy Tang

Have a Great Trip!!

Provision

The more time I spend in my Secret Spot, the more I am startled by God's provision right in my own backyard.

Apparently, for instance, I can brew tea from pine needles (so says the man in Man vs. Wild). I can eat pine needles if there's a water shortage. They store up good amounts of water and have 10 times more vitamin C than oranges (again, so says the man). I do not know if this is true for all types of pine, but I'm going to do the research.

The other day, I harvested my first set of dandelion greens (watch for an upcoming recipe on my other blog). Soon, I'll be able to garnish salads with tender violet leaves, and sugared violet flowers. I can fry fiddleheads (the curved shoot of new ferns), as well as make tea with red raspberry leaves. And if I were to grow my grass long enough (which I almost did last year, for those who remember!), I could eat the seeds.

Considering these simple provisions, I realize that God freely gives me everything I need for life— body and soul. I just have to open my eyes, my mind, and my heart.

Needles in Tea photo, by L.L. Barkat


Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.

NEW LINKS TO Subfused:

Kim's Subfusion

Perspective

So my kids have been going outside too, sitting in the little "woods," writing poetry and gazing up into the pine.

I like this poem from Sara. There was snow on the ground when she wrote it...


It's not very cold outside
and it's beautiful
and it's peaceful
and the birds are singing
and then the dogs bark
and the distant sound of cars
and the rustling of birds in the trees
and I am in the forest
and it's real.

It's real. I wonder what's real to me, and to you... and how our perspective influences this reality...

Poem by Sara. Pine photo by L.L. Barkat.


Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.


NEW LINKS TO Subfused:

Maria's Suburban

Al Hsu's Discussing Suburbia

Charity's Subruralurbanite

Desirous

Somebody gave me the book Sacred Rhythms. I love it. Barton writes with an easy style that draws me in.

She opens with a whole section on desire, and I could not help remembering at least three other books I've read recently that also broach this subject. Each book pinpoints desire as a starting place for Christian and creative growth.

Says Barton, "Opening up our desire in God's presence...gives God a chance to help us sort it all out....It enables us to rise up from our place by the side of the road so that we can actually get on the path to spiritual transformation and follow Christ." (p.26-27)

I want to believe this. I like the idea that maybe something in me knows where I need to go, at the "longing" level— whether it be in my spiritual life or my writing life or even my family life. But I am not sure. I'm also intrigued by the whole emphasis on desire. I suspect that Barton and other authors are touching a cultural point of need (or desire!).

What do you think this is about? Is it important to pay attention to our longings and desires? Lend me your thougths, for I desire to know.

Painting by Charity Singleton. Used with permission.


Seedlings Invitation: If you write a post related to this post and Link It Back Here, let me know and I'll link to yours.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Yay! I did it!

Downhill Rows

And now, after last post's commercial interruption, back to Wendell Berry and the Peruvian farmers (sounds like a rock band, doesn't it...Wendell Berry & the Peruvian Farmers?).

Anyway, Berry noticed, when he looked up to those mountain fields, that the farmers had created downhill rows. Such rows allow water to run off quickly, leaving precious soil intact and preventing erosion.

Somehow this reminds me of the wisdom of Proverbs. Especially the proverbs that concern letting our anger run off quickly. Sometimes it is sweet to sit in our little red rocker, cuddle our anger, and sing ourselves to sleep. We love to kindle affection for just one more word in the argument. (Oh, I do anyway.)

So, I like to remember this...

For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. Proverbs 26:20

Rocker photo by Gail Nadeau. Used with permission.


Standing Seedlings Invitation: If you post something related to this Seedlings post, let me know and I'll link to you.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Sovereign

Proper Timing

I like this watercolor by Charity. Watercolor painting has always stymied me, because I rarely time things quite right to get the effect I'm looking for.

Proper timing.

Wendell Berry notes that the Peruvian farmers prevent erosion partly through proper timing. They don't plant the fields while the fields are vulnerable to rainfall.

Vulnerable.

I need to remember this in life, when I try to plant something, try to bring growth. Recently, I was lamenting that I struggle with proper timing in my interactions, almost as much as I struggle with it in watercolor. Somehow I miss the signs that the "field" is too vulnerable to start my digging and planting. And then everything just starts to wash away, and I'm left there looking at an empty field.

In my recent grief over this struggle, I ended up (perhaps by God's own good timing) in Proverbs. Here are the planting suggestions, just as they came to me, drifting in like a mist, to meet me in the emptiness...

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion. (18:2)

If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame. (18:13)

An intelligent mind acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. (18:15)

Desire without knowledge is not good, and one who moves too hurriedly misses the way. (19:2)

That's it. Just a few proverbial farming suggestions, from the Master Farmer himself.


Standing Seedlings Invitation: If you post something related to this Seedlings post, let me know and I'll link to you.

NEW LINK TO THIS POST:

Timing

NEW LINK TO FALLOWING:

Sabbath

Watercolor by Charity Singleton. Used with permission.

Fallowing

As I'm just back from a time of "fallowing," I thought it would be good to move to that topic here. Besides, it is the next topic in Berry's list of what the Peruvian mountain farmers do to control erosion.

On the surface, the practice of fallowing makes little sense. For how could leaving the ground unplanted contribute to keeping soil in place? How could doing "nothing" accomplish "something"?

In truth, there's much that goes on in a fallow field. The farmer plows the soil. He may plant a cover crop to restore nutrients to the soil. Or he may let nature plant what it will. Ultimately, this improves the soil's structure, which influences how it absorbs and retains water.

I consider that to let my life go fallow at times does not mean "doing nothing." Indeed, it may entail doing something unusual, even a little wild.

Maybe, just maybe, this is what I'm doing out in my secret spot in the back yard. When the rains come and the next season for planting comes, we will see if something new and strong and restructured emerges...

Standing Seedlings Invitation: If you post something related to this Seedlings post, let me know and I'll link to you.

Pine cone photo, on the way to my Secret Spot. L.L. Barkat.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Sabbath

Preparing the Soul

Unanchored

Another Take On Silence

Five Reasons Why I Blog (or, how fallowing-in-Florida made me less serious)

NEW LINKS TO TERRACING:

Incas & Disposable Everything

Terracing My Own Backyard

My backyard is a hill, in two directions. It is small, bordered by a rusty chain-link fence, visually squeezed by houses on all sides. At the not-so-far end is a large pine tree, some maples, various odd shrubs, and a patch of ivy beneath it all. I do not like my backyard much. I mostly stay in the house. We have talked about grading the yard and terracing. But something inside me fights that.

Recently, with all this talk of erosion control, smallness of scale, and terracing, I have begun to rethink my backyard— especially since it is a place that has eroded my appreciation for being outside. So, I just read Radical Simplicity and am taking Merkel's suggestion about going to a secret outdoors place each day. (More about this on my my other blog.)

"Lead me into contentment," is my new prayer, as I step into this small space to find what unexpected life may be there. It is my way of terracing my own backyard, working with and shoring up what is there, bringing fruit out of what feels fruitless.

What follows is Sunday night's fruit. It is longer than what I usually post here. But, since I'm going to be away for a week or so starting Thursday, maybe you can come back to read it while I'm gone...

I did not think I would go out to my secret spot today. It is Sunday. I sang in the church praise band this morning, came home to a much-needed nap. We made popcorn and tea and chuckled "sorry" to each other in a game of Knockout (I'm sorry to knock you out, it's my only move!) I won the game. Winners get a kiss, "losers" get a hug. In this way, everybody wins.

I got two kisses from the girls, three from the mister ("No, no!" we cried. "Kiss like you mean it!") We collapsed into a family hug. Dinner was leftover Greek food. Sara played the cello. Then, it was off to bed for the children. And I settled into reading Annie Dillard, Tim Bascom, Lisa McMinn. Somewhere along Tinker Creek, after Dillard sees the frog get eaten by the water beetle, something called me imperceptibly. "Look up."

I looked out the window. Snow falling, thick. How did it silently call me? How could I not answer? I put on gloves and a wool hat, my down coat, and went out into the night. It was light enough to see the world of quiet. I carried my sled to the secret spot and lay down where the snow was falling through the pine. It fell steadily on my face. I could hear it too, "tip, tip - tip, tip, tip."

The snow became like rain where it melted on my skin. Rivulets, like tears, crossed my face. Water flowed into my mouth. The taste of melted night snow. My hat drooped from the weight of the gathering snow, began to pull itself off my head. I closed my eyes.

"What if I just stay here, shiver into sleep?" I thought. The ground was a soft bed beneath me. The air a cool, wet cover. I listened to the squeal of a snowplow turning the corner. All else was silence. "Where are the birds? All asleep. Somewhere in the trees?" Between scattered thoughts, my warm house began to send out its own call, imperceptible at first, but persistent. "Come back inside."

I picked up my sled and walked out of the snow-laden ivy... placed the red plastic onto new-fallen snow. Whooosh... I went down the hill fast, stopped by crashing into the house. It doesn't hurt. I laughed out loud. Smiled to the snow and the night. Put the sled under the covered porch. Turned in time to see my backyard neighbor switch off her kitchen light.

I wondered, "What did she see? Does she think she is crazy, witnessing a dark, lumpy figure sledding down my backyard hill... off into the cover of the hemlocks..."

SSI (Standing Seedlings Invitation): If you post something related to this Seedling post, let me know and I'll link to you.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Living in a Throwaway Culture

making do

Lead Us photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Terracing

In the post Erosion Control, I mentioned Wendell Berry's observations about Peruvian farming, and mused that these same dynamics might be applied to our lives. So, we talked about "smallness of scale." And now it seems good to turn to terracing.

Terracing is a way to produce fruit from what might otherwise be fruitless land. It keeps soil in place and makes a patch of workable land right on the mountainside. Stonework cradles the soil, helping it stay put.

Says Berry, "the stonework in these walls is excellent...and provides a good insight into the agricultural thinking of the Incas...these walled terraces testify that [they] aimed at a permanent agriculture, and that aim accounts for the excellence of the workmanship." (p 45)

Conversely, we live in a throw-away culture. The "you can toss it" mindset pervades everything from the way we treat relationships to the way we treat goods, homes, communities, church families, and so on. And perhaps this accounts for the level of our workmanship (which is too often less impressive than the Incan stonework.)

But, what if we stopped and took the view of the Incas. This is what we've got to work with. We're staying here. How can we make the mountain fruitful? I marvel to think of what we might build, how we might terrace what seemed less than productive.


Seedlings in stones in Guatemala photo by Dorothy Olson Miller. Used with permission.

SSI (Standing Seedlings Invitation): If you post something related to this Seedling post, let me know and I'll link to you.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:
A Sense of Place

Incas & Disposable Everything

NEW LINKS TO SMALLNESS OF SCALE POST:

Smallness of Scale

Narcissus Gone Wild

Smaller Scale Meets Toy Closet

Adios, All-You-Can-Eat

In our last discussion, Craver commented that he struggles to spend time with The Few, as opposed to The Many. I observed that this is symptomatic of our "All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet" society.

In other words, we have access to a lot of relationships, experiences, technologies, goods, etc. In such a context, it's hard to focus on our own plate, to savor and appreciate what's there... to willingly choose "smallness of scale," where we can attend to details with creativity and passion.

A few days after our conversation, I opened up Jim Merkel's Radical Simplicity. Merkel is a former arms trader, who now works for peace initiatives. He shares an experience where he watched an indigenous group solve a problem together. It struck him...

"The elegant simplicity of cooperation and hard work was poetry in motion. This is what you do when you don't have a bulldozer, don't have cheap gas, and don't have a permanent war-time economy. These intelligent, creative solutions were outside of my box..." p.32

Sometimes I think we would be happier if we said "adios" to the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. So many people suffer from a sense of meaninglessness. So many people live in little boxes, that all seem to look the same. We even sell our lives for the privilege, going into mounds of debt; or we work long hours or even two jobs to preserve the box.

Then, in the process, our opportunities for cooperation, intelligence, and creativity fall aside.


If you post something about the All-You-Can-Eat phenomenon, tell me, and I'll link to you. Also, Week Two of the Relationship Exercise is now in the comments of the post "Relational Engagement." Be sure to check out Craver's new comment too... the continuing saga of Mr. & Mrs. Craver!

Sara's Creative Squirrel-Proof Birdfeeder. Photo by L.L. Barkat.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Pancake Day

Relational Engagement

So, I said I'm going to work on a few good relationships. Where to begin? I'll start by spending time with The Few instead of The Many. But that won't make the few relationships automatically good.

Today, I picked up (again) The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. I want to try Gottman's six-week exercise on nurturing fondness and admiration. Call it my effort at relational engagement. I'll try to record the exercise in my journal.

Here's Week One of the exercise, and I think it can be modified if a person wanted to use it parent-to-child, friend-to-friend (maybe even co-worker to co-worker). If anyone modifies it, let me know what you substitute. I'd be interested...

Week 1

Monday
Thought: I am genuinely fond of my partner. (We're supposed to "think" this even if we don't think it!)
Task: List one characteristic you find endearing or lovable.

Tuesday
Thought: I can easily speak of the good times in our marriage. (We're supposed to "speak" of them, even if we have nothing to say.)
Task: Pick one good time and write a sentence about it.

Wednesday
Thought: I can easily remember romantic, special times in our marriage. (We're supposed to "remember" even if we seem to have amnesia.)
Task: Pick one such time and think about it.

Thursday
Thought: I am physically attracted to my partner. (We're supposed to find "attraction" even if we're put off.)
Task: Think of one physical attribute you like.

Friday
Thought: My partner has specific qualities that make me proud. (We're supposed to be "proud" even if we're just irritated.)
Task: Write down one characteristic that makes you proud.

Feel free to ask me if I've gone through with my relational engagement exercise. (Not that I'll tell you my secret thoughts or anything!)

Everybody's Engaged Illustration, by Sara.

Smallness of Scale

In my last post, "Erosion Control," I mentioned Wendell Berry's Peru-farming observations. I want to discuss each observation as a way to approach life in general. Today is "smallness of scale."

As Berry looked out over the fields, he noted...

"For those fields hold their soil on those slopes, first of all, by being little. By being little they protect themselves against erosion, but their smallness also permits attention to be focused accurately and competently on the details." (p 26)

"The fields have to be the right size; to make them too big would be to destroy them....What I was thinking, then, looking down at the little fields of the Andes, was that the most interesting, crucial, difficult questions of agriculture are questions of propriety. What is the proper size for a farm for one family in a given place? What is the proper size for a field, given a particular slope, climate, soil type, and drainage?" (p.43)

How can I apply Berry's "smallness of scale" ideas to my life— to keep things intact or, better yet, to encourage abundant growth? I thought of a few ways I already do this...

• In homeschooling my kids, I keep our lessons short and sweet. Children learn quite a lot in small spaces of time.

• Buying a small house has meant we have less to clean, care for, spend money on, and pay back in mortgage cost.

• In choosing a small dinner plate, I find that I eat an appropriate amount of food.

• I developed and follow (though not slavishly) a 30-Day Meal Plan.

• In reading just a little bit of scripture each week, I eventually make it through my whole bible every so once in a while.


Some new ways I want to incorporate "smallness of scale"...

• get on-line for shorter time periods, and on fewer days (I think I'll try posting on Tues/Thurs for awhile, instead of Tues/Thurs/Fri... I'm over on Green Inventions on Wed/Fri, and my daughter's picture of the Sermon on the Mount, complete with computer on the "me, me, me" side, has made me realize I've once again slipped into too much computer time.)

• focus deeply on a few good relationships

• read only the best books (put the boring ones aside, without guilt!)


So what about you? How might you use "smallness of scale" to make life good, or just prevent erosion?

(If you do a post on "Smallness of Scale," let me know. I'll link to you. Speaking of links, check out what Craver & Son did in response to my "Blessed are The" post. Check out his comment in the original post too. Cool.)

Turtle in His Small Home. Photo by Sonia.


NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:

Smallness of Scale

Narcissus Gone Wild

Smaller Scale Meets Toy Closet

30-Day Meals

Smallness of Scale As I See It

Big Things

Caffeine Addiction

Erosion Control

My friend Charity finally got me reading Wendell Berry. I've been meaning to read him for a very long time.

In The Gift of Good Land, he talks about the mountain farming of Peru. Erosion is a serious issue to consider.

Says Berry, "I had begun to be impressed with the way erosion control is built into the patterns of this farming, as one of the dominant themes. I started a list of the various means... smallness of scale, terracing, fallowing, proper timing, polyculture, downhill rows to let water out quickly, weeding after crops are established...the return of organic wastes to the soil."

As I read this, I was fascinated by the ingenuity of the peasants. I was fascinated, too, by their intimate knowledge of their own conditions, which fostered appropriate solutions.

Then, I thought, ...Do I do this in my life, in my heart and relationships and ways of living? Do I have a good sense of how to exercise erosion control? Or is everything just pouring down the mountainside...

Photo by L.L. Barkat. (Nope, this is not the same pic as on my Green Inventions Central blog.)

Inestitude

My seven-year-old daughter hopped in the car.

"Show me some inestitude, Mommy," she said.

"Inestitude? What's that?"

"It's kind of like attitude, but good," she replied, with a look of inestitude.

The next day we went for a walk in the rain. My little coiner-of-words poked sticks in puddles, sang to the dogs behind fences, shouted to the clouds, declared that we were lost in the rain forest. I watched her with some amusement, and a sense of longing... to be like her... a person of inestitude.

"...then I was beside Him, like a little child; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always..." Proverbs 8:30

Ferris, pondering the meaning of "inestitude." Photo by Gail Nadeau. Used with permission.

NEW LINKS TO THIS POST:
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