Five days late isn't too bad, right?? Confession, Christmas, & Charity

I haven't written much lately.  At least on paper.  I've "written" lots in my head.  But some things require more research than I have energy to do right now.  Some things are intimidating to write out.  And sometimes I simply haven't the emotional energy because it's being spent elsewhere.

But this one I really wanted to write.  Five days ago.  And here I am on December 6th contemplating whether I scratch yet another writing idea or just post it late.  Obviously, the "post it late" side of my brain won.  Only because the charity part of this is important to me.

There was a funny/sad picture running around Facebook recently describing how we spend a whole day (WOW!  ONE whole day...I digress...) celebrating all the things we are thankful for and the next day we get in fights to buy things we don't need with money we don't have.  It's Christmas, right?

♫'Tis the season to be jolly ♫
♫Peace on earth, goodwill towards men♫

Familiar songs for a familiar time of the year.

Some people, like me, take this time of year to celebrate Jesus' birth.  Was Jesus really born on December 25th?  No.  But that's okay with me.  We adopted a dog from the pound so we don't know her birth date either.  We celebrate on August 7th.  My brother's birthday.  I don't remember why anymore and I'm not really sure my brother knows that, but there it is.  We didn't know the date, so we picked one.  Sometime around 300 AD people picked December 25th to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It took the place of a pagan holiday.   Again, in the church we've done that a lot.  We took old bar tunes & gave them new words.  Many of those are now our cherished hymns.  God does it.  He takes the old, yucky self and makes it something wonderfully new.  So we celebrate.

We celebrate the God who left all that heaven offered to take the form of man.  Not a grown man.
A helpless child.  Not the child of a wealthy family.  The child of a poor carpenter.  Born in a stable but worshiped by both shepherds and kings.  A child whose life and death would change the world.

But you don't celebrate Jesus?
Ok.  For the point of this blog, it doesn't matter.  It does matter to me, because your eternity matters to me, but that's not the point of this particular musing.

Perhaps you celebrate family.  Or tradition.  Or simply you give because you get.  Or you maybe you just like giving.  Giving is good.  It makes a person feel good.  It gives a sense of satisfaction.  And really...if you're reading this, we probably have lots of stuff.  Stuff we've given ourselves.  Stuff other people have given to us.  Even if we're considered poor by US standards or government standards or our own standards, truly we are really quite rich.  My husband and I don't make a lot of money and by some people's standards (even occasionally our own) we don't have "enough".  The government even says that I could have my children's lunch prices subsidized.  At $3.25 or less per lunch, I can buy my own children's lunches, thankyouverymuch.  Perhaps we don't have all the cool techy toys my kids would like, but we have more than enough.  And, when I've got my head screwed on right, I even remember that.

For a reality check, you might consider entering your yearly income at www.globalrichlist.com.  With one push of the button it will give you a visual representation of exactly how rich you are compared to the rest of the world.

That oft demonized 1%?  Turns out I'm part of it.  

"$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.

$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.

$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

$2400 could buy you a second generation High Definition TV OR schooling for an entire generation of school children in an Angolan village."
(from www.globalrichlist.com)

Perspective.  It's a curious thing isn't it.

So....during this time of lights and family, trees and carols, hustle and bustle, tinsel and presents, would you consider giving to someone NOT in your family?  To someone you've never met?  To someone who truly doesn't have their basic needs met.  My family doesn't need another present.  If you care to re-connect with my family, a card is good enough.  A handwritten note would be the cherry on top.  If you want to go over the top, pick a charity and give a gift.  There are millions of charities and there's always more work to be done.

I'm funny about charities.  Just like the things that I post, I like to research charities first.  I'm not fond of the charities that take peoples monies and pay administrators more than they help people who really need it.  Administrators can be paid...but they're like the rest of us...probably richer than they like to admit.

So pick one.  Pick one with a cause that is close to your heart.

Hunger?  Try a food bank.  Here in Columbia, you can send food or money to Harvest Hope Food Bank
http://www.harvesthope.org/

Human Trafficking?  Yes, there truly is still slavery in this world.  Most often women and children.  Used and abused and thrown away like so much trash.
WAR International rescues women and children who have been sold.  WAR teaches them they are worthy of respect as well as a trade they can use to sustain themselves.  If you want to give money that's great.  Or you can buy goods that have been produced by women who have been rescued.    www.warinternational.org

or

The A21 Campaign who works for the same purpose.  Did you know that human trafficking is the world's fastest growing criminal enterprise???  Every 30 seconds someone is forced into modern slavery, usually for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.  These are not faceless robots.  These are someone's daughter, mother, child.  Human beings with names and emotions.  People who need someone to care.
Again, with the A21 Campaign, you can donate money or buy goods.  http://www.thea21campaign.org/

Perhaps the cause of the military is close to your heart.  As a military brat, I can appreciate the sacrifices made my both the soldier and his or her family.  These are people who give up much for we who they have never met.  It wouldn't hurt to give back to some of them, especially those who have paid a physical price.
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/


One of my favorites is http://www.worldvision.org/
You can send ducks that will provide a sustainable source of food and income.
Or rabbits, or cows.
You can sponsor a well to provide clean water.
You can send clothes, especially in this time of cold weather in the northern hemisphere.
You could sponsor a child, providing food and education; changing a little persons life forever.  All for the same monthly amount that some of us spend on coffee.

So that brings me up to date.  (phew....I thought I'd never get here)
Today's charity of the day was www.lovegave.com, a group of local churches coming together to help orphaned children.

So pick something.  Pick someONE.  You can change a life this season.  It can be as little $5.  Or a box of pasta.  Do something for someone else this season.

If you don't like any of these charities, never fear!  I'll post a charity each day until December 31st, so you've got plenty of time.  Yes, it'll be after Christmas by the time I'm finished, but that's okay.  Jesus wasn't born on the 25th anyway, so I don't think He'll mind.  :)

More A-muse than muse aka trying to go to bed with animals in the house

Animals in our house can't be normal.  (Whatever normal might be.)


Yesterday was a pretty laid back sort of day.  Except that I put a paper cut at the very base of my middle finger, in the crease.  Talk about ouch!  I tried all the usual first aid tricks - hydrogen peroxide (more ouch), triple antibiotic (no help). No luck with a bandaid, because nothing is sticking to that location. So I finally decided to take my injured self to bed where hopefully unconsciousness would help me forget how much my hand hurt every time I moved my fingers.  Do you know how often you wiggle your fingers in the course of simple stuff?  Even surfing the internet gets painful.


So I called the dog off the couch and said we were going to bed and headed toward the staircase.  We do this every night.  Every night.  She's supposed to slither off the couch, yawn in her snoopy sort of fashion and meander towards the stairs.  Not tonight.  She opened her eyes and looked at me.  Brown eyes said, "I'm good, Thanks!"  Since everyone else in the house was already snoozing, I didn't want to be too loud.  "Bed!"  More brown eyes.  No movement.  So I headed her direction.  Being a smart dog, she lands her choreographed fall off the couch (10.0 for sticking it with all four paws) and edges toward the stairs. Unfortunately the back door was between she and I.  And the outside called to her.


Ok.  Fine.  One last pit stop before bed.  So I got myself ready for bed and headed for the door.  No doggy nose pressed to the glass waiting for me.  So I went outside.  Not that anyone would have seen me anyway (as they were all sleeping already too), but I was glad for modest jammies.  I wandered out to the deck.  No doggy.  Really?  I wanted to go to bed.  So I called (ever so softly, so as not to wake sleeping neighbors, or my own family).  No response.  Do I have the only dog in the world that requires you shine a flashlight on her and say "I see you!" before she'll come in the house?  Possibly so.  Off to the house to dig out my flashlight.


Yep.  There were her eyes, glowing green.  (A little creepy but better than red.  Just sayin'.)  "I see you!"  Tonight the response was apathetic.  She continued to wander the yard.  Seriously?  No squirrels, dear.  They're all sleeping.  The same as I would like to be.  Please?  But no.  She had to wander the whole backyard sniffing, making sure that the family was safe for the evening.  No rabid squirrels will attack us tonight.  I'm so relieved.


Finally she wanders toward me as if to say, "Oh look.  You're finally ready for bed."  <Sigh>  But I'm not complaining.  I might make it to my bed before I fall asleep.  So she and I head to the back door.  And what do you think I find?


Resident schizoid cat with her wet little nose sniffing the 1/4 inch space I left between the door and the frame.  Sadly, I didn't notice the nose until slightly too late and she made a bolt for the huge outdoors.  Only my stupendous ninja skills (at 11:30 at night no less) kept her from achieving her desired goal.


Needless to say, she and I had a short, sweet conversation.  No dice, chica. I'm ready for bed and I've just convinced the dog to go inside.  I'm not chasing a feline.


You'd think that the dog would be ready for bed, right?  But no.  I made it to the top of the stairs and she looks at me like, "You want me to go where?"  "All the way up those stairs?"  Yeah.  We do this every night.  It's not usually this hard.  I was beginning to worry that I was going to have to carry her up to bed.  I don't even carry my children to bed anymore.  I'm not carrying the dog.


She finally had pity on my and slunk up the stairs and into her crate.


I think I'm lucky I didn't trip down and break something in my somnolent state.  Especially since the cat decided to take up residence on the top stair again.


Suddenly the paper cut didn't seem quite so painful anymore.  Sleep felt good.  And I didn't remember any of my traumatic evening until I came home from work tonight.  There was something about the opening of that door...

Clouds, Invisible Stuff, and Hugs

I've got a thing for clouds.  I'm not sure if it's a season of life or a result of where I live, but recently I have been totally awed by the sky.  There is an off-ramp that I travel daily; the clover-leaf kind where you're driving in one direction, get off at the exit, go around about 360 degrees and end up traveling on a different road going approximately same direction you were before.   The thing that has caught my attention though is the circular motion.  It sort of makes me feel like Julie Andrews in Sound of Music, with my hands thrown up in the air, spinning around and around in the Austrian Alps.  (No worries, I do manage to keep my hands on the wheel. Unless Building 429 is on the radio...but that's a whole 'nother story.)

It's the....hugeness, the immensity (that's a word, right?),the enormity, the grandness ......the words just aren't big enough!  The sky is amazing.  I know that South Carolina isn't "Big Sky Country" but it certainly has seemed like it lately.  Sometimes it feels like you could just reach your hand out and run your fingers through the fluffy white clouds.  But then I stop and consider and realize how far away they really are.  Truthfully, they could be anywhere from 1 to 4 MILES up in the sky.  But they feel so close.  (cue Rich Mullins music ♫ Sometimes the night was beautiful/ Sometimes the sky was so far away/ Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close/ You could touch it but your heart would break ♫  Ok, enough of that...)  I imagine it's like going in to the Sistine Chapel and seeing all those paintings.  Or a planetarium and seeing all those stars.   You reach out, but it's not there.  It's farther than it seems.

I used to teach the water cycle to middle school students.  In one of the training classes I attended, I was introduced to a water cycle activity that turned out to be one of my favorite parts of 9 years of teaching.  There were brown paper lunch bags around the room labeled with a location (cloud, mountain, river, etc.) and inside were slips of paper describing a particular part of the water cycle and instructions on what location to go to next.  The students ended up with individual stories about their "life" as a water droplet.  Being taken in by kelp and transpired into the air sounded like fun.  Falling as snow onto the ocean?  Oh yeah.  Having an animal drink you up, then urinate you into the ground....not so much.  Well, maybe the boys found that one amusing.  It was always interesting to me to hear the final stories, written and read by students.  As unique as the students themselves, the paths of these fictitious water droplets fascinated me.  How often do we stop to think about the air and water that surround us?  Until recently, quite frankly, I don't know that I did.  Ever.  But when you stop and think about it; we're surrounded.

We stand on a ball of dirt and rock, hanging in space, surrounded by the life-giving qualities of something we can't always see.  Air.  Unless you live in Los Angeles, we generally can't see it.  We don't register its pressure on our skin.  We simply take it in and breathe it out.  Hundreds of times an hour; thousands of time a day.  Usually without thought.  The earth is enclosed by and protected by life-sustaining air.  Without it there wouldn't be a single living thing on this planet.  No people.  No animals.  No plants.  Just rocks & dirt.  (And as much as I like rocks & dirt, even those aren't very interesting without the living stuff around them.)  The air is just....there.  Always.  The atmosphere surrounds the planet and  every person on it like a hug from our favorite person.  Comforting sometimes.  Playful others.  Maybe even sometimes that kick-in-the-pants we need..  It's not always gentle. But it is always there. 

When I stand outside and look up in the sky, the clouds remind me that they aren't there by themselves. They are up there hanging out with the air. They are the visible reminder to me of something (and Someone) that is there whether I see it or not.  Something that sustains me. Something I need.  The atmosphere that hugs the earth, and brings me life.  


So the next time you walk outside, take a moment to look up.  Check out the clouds.  And consider yourself hugged.

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;

Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."

    Art lovers often visit museums and gaze at masterpieces by the likes of Van Gogh, Monet, and Degas.  Rightfully so, the visitors admire the skill, time, and genius that it takes to transfer the essence of nature, people, or action a stationary two-dimensional canvas.  Other people are fascinated by architecture; admiring the wood, steel or glass frames towering into the sky or fading into the scenery.  It is an amazing talent to fit pieces together to make a beautiful yet functional space for others to live or work in.  

    Personally, computers fascinate me.  I totally do not understand the inner workings, but I know all those tiny little wires, moving pieces, ones and zeroes work together to light up my screen so I can play games, talk to people, post silly pictures....and work.  Someone really smart came up with this stuff!  No question.  That much, I understand.  I think most other people do too.

    But when it comes to the complexities of nature, somehow I'm supposed to believe that it all happened by chance.

    Have you contemplated plants recently?  Stuff flows UP!  Taken in by the roots, minerals & water go against gravity and flow up to the leaves for photosynthesis.  How about clouds?  They produce rain which feeds the plants & animals, supplies rivers & then the water evaporates and the process starts all over again.  A delicately balanced system which supports life as we know it. Animals.  I love animals.  There are all sizes, shapes & colors.  Some, I like.  Some...not so much.  Have you thought about a giraffe recently?  How hard must that heart beat to get blood up the loooong neck to his brain.  Unless he's bent down, on those awkward bony knees, lapping water up out of a river.  Dad informed me this week that giraffes can clean their ears with their tongues! How many animals do you know that can do that?  (I think I'm glad people can't...quick frankly.)  Then there are dolphins.  Another mammal, but they live in water.  And instead of a coarse, hairy, spotted hide, they have a smooth, sleek, rubbery yet highly sensitive skin.  The grins are kind of similar though.   Duck-billed platypus are another favorite of mine!  An egg-laying mammal that looks kind of like it was built out of leftover parts.  A very cute combination though!

   The ultimate combination though is the human body.  Our brain alone is so complex, doctors have spent years studying it and still don't quite understand all its workings. We each have one and yet can't manage to use more than a small fraction of its abilities.  The thumb sets us apart from most of the animal kingdom.  Can you imagine opening a door without it?  Hitchhiking?  (Ok, no hitchhiking.)  Throwing a ball?  

   What about all the highly specialized, precisely balanced systems that work together to keep us living, breathing, and moving?  The circulatory system makes it possible to breathe, the respiratory system makes it possible to move, the digestive system makes it possible to think. if you've ever messed up one little part, you know how much it effects the whole.

  And yet, I'm supposed to believe that these diverse animals, these delicate, precise systems, the stuff that makes up me "just happened."  Poof! Voila! Bang! There it is.  

   This, I do not understand.

   My family is looking forward to camping in the fall & I'm contemplating how many activities we can cram into one three-day weekend.  (Not to mention all the packing, planning, etc that needs to happen before then.)  One thing, I know.  On my next walk through the forest, as I ponder the incredible vastness of the sky, the multitude of shades of green, blue and brown, and the chill of a mountain stream and the multitude of things that live in and around it, I will consider the awesomeness of the One who created it all.  When I come across the Stone Chapel, I will know that it was put there for a reason, designed with great thought and constructed with purpose and labor.   And also every tree, flower and stone that surrounds it.  And me.