Category: Spiritual Musings

Monday, March 10, 2025 Rest Vs. Distractions

~ Foodiness ~ 4 Comments

Our pastor said something yesterday in the sermon that caught my attention and my imagination: we should not equate our amusements and entertainments with true rest. For example, if we’ve completed our day’s work and sit down to reward ourselves with some time on social media, play some games, watch a fun show, read an undemanding novel, we tend to think of those things as taking a well-earned rest. There’s nothing necessarily sinful about doing any of those things within bounds, but this is not rest. As our pastor said, “Sin makes us restless; the heart corrupts our desire for rest and seeks amusement instead.” What he said next really caught me: “Rest is when you can face the hard questions of life.”

I’ve been turning that over in my mind quite a bit since hearing it. Perhaps when we are truly at rest, we are not distracting ourselves from important matters but are giving thought to them, which could take the form of journaling, talking to someone else, praying, reading the Word, reading books that encourage and edify us in those matters, etc. We talk about the Sabbath Day as being a day of rest from our regular labors; it’s challenging to think that we’re not just resting “from” something, we’re also resting “for” something. And the kind of rest our pastor was talking about isn’t something that we would do only on Sundays.

When I was walking more regularly, I was inspired by the poet Mary Oliver to use it as a time to think and observe, rather than a time to listen to podcasts, audiobooks or music. There’s something about giving my mind space to think that is restful in and of itself. It’s also where creativity happens.

Lately, I’ve been doing too much “doom scrolling” on Instagram. It’s amusing, entertaining and sometimes interesting, but after 30 minutes of it, I can’t really say it’s restful. It feels more like I just wasted 30 minutes of my time. Distractions, indeed.

Well, that’s what I’ve been musing about today. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits…

Honeybee slippers for Lynniebee

Snow, snow, snow!

Warm weather to melt aforementioned snow

Good books

Sunrises and sunsets

Quiet evenings

Washing machines and dishwashers

I’ll probably amuse and distract myself before deleting this in the morning.

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Thursday, March 6, 2025 It’s the Little Things…

~ Foodiness ~ 9 Comments

I’m very hard on slippers. I wear them all the time in the winter and require a lot out of them. Even the best of them falter, fade and fizzle out as days turn into months and then years. If I get two or three years out of a pair, it’s amazing. Inevitably, however, I’m in the market for them again.

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like shopping? Also, have I ever mentioned that I’m cheap…er, I mean – frugal? And picky! I have to be able to put slippers on easily from a standing position and they have to have hard soles in case I need to go outside in them. And I have big feet. Those of you with darling little feet don’t understand what us Bigfoots have to go through to find something we like in our size.

I did some half-hearted hunting in February but the inventory is low in most stores by then. “Here’s a pair I could live with – oh, but they don’t have them in my size.” Meanwhile, my old pair of slippers were losing their soles, which is very disheartening for shoekind.

I stopped in today at our local Most Excellent Shoe Store. It’s not called that, but it should be. This is a full-service shoe store, a dying breed, sadly. Their inventory is high quality with prices to match, probably the reason I didn’t go there first. Shame on me!

I didn’t have high hopes. But there on the sale table was the last slipper of its kind in the store. In my size. And it had bees on it. BEES!!!!! 🐝 I’ve been using the name “Lynniebee” for my various creative pursuits for a number of years now, so that got my attention. The slippers are made with wool and were on sale for less than half the original price (which I never would have paid. The frugality goes deep).

How kind of the Lord to pay attention to these little details to delight me with such a gift. Do you think He’s got better things to do than to provide the perfect slippers for me in just the right size at the perfect price? He does, which is all the more reason to praise Him.

And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:
they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which today is alive
and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will he not much more clothe you,
O you of little faith?
Matthew 6:28-30

Also, bonus: the brand of the slipper is “Halflinger.” How could I not think of the Hobbits, those “halflings” of Tolkien’s, while wearing them?

Step into a friendship. I certainly have.

I’ll bee deeleeting thees in the morning.

May 21, 2018 Do It Again

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

The 23-hour drive was nearly over, but like labor pains, our stops were becoming more frequent as my husband attempted to overcome lower back pain with stretching and walking. Meanwhile, I was also on the injured list and not driving at all because of a flare-up of tendinitis. We were limping our way to the finish line, but generally in good spirits. At the last stop about an hour north of our destination, I took a hurried photo, seeking to capture and tame this wild tulip with my magic box. I know that the world does not lack for photos of tulips. One tulip is probably pretty much like another. But all the same, I cannot, I simply cannot, feel ho-hum about this one. I am reminded of GK Chesterton’s thoughts about what we might call “monotony.”

Perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

Oh, may He never grow tired of making tulips. This one is a dandy. Do it again!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

May 17, 2018 Mist

~ Foodiness ~ 3 Comments

I love misty mornings. I love the way the mist softens and conceals, the way it makes the world a mysterious place. Clouds, ephemeral and ghostly, rest on the trees. The eye looks upon the shrouded landscape and positively hungers for the reveal that comes with the heat of the sun. Mysteries are meant to be solved; mists are meant to melt away so that what has been hidden will be ablaze with clarifying light. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known. There is a mist here in this world that makes it hard to see – I do not know what true Beauty looks like. But one day, one glorious day, I’ll see the Beautiful Man face to face…and I’ll know. And I’ll be known.

Maybe I love mist because it reveals the longing in my heart.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

April 11, 2018 Face Off

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

Using the telephoto lens again, this time from the kitchen window. Most of the shots weren’t that great, but I really like this one. I was pretty enthusiastic about it until I started zooming in on it so I could see the chickadee’s face. Then I realized it didn’t have one. I’m not kidding! It’s just a ball of fluff, feathers and legs. I find it hard to believe that my new camera failed to notice such an important thing as a beak and two little beady eyes when it was doing its autofocus thing. Of all the features on a creature (including a human), the face is the part you want to see the most, isn’t it? Faces tell us that we are beholding a creaturely thing. I don’t want to live in a world where chickadees don’t have faces. Better to let the camera be a liar. Let God be true and every man a liar, as the Apostle Paul said. That chickadee’s face is true.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

April 5, 2018 Really Seeing

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We saw a documentary a couple weeks ago called ‘The Riot and the Dance,” a glorious celebration of beauty and chaos in this created world – starting in the narrator’s “back yard” in Idaho and eventually going all the way to Sri Lanka to see what wonders God has wrought. And I thought, “Hey, what about my back yard? We have wonders here, too, right?” Both my husband and I have found that when we go forth with cameras, we see more. It seems a little more challenging when the going forth is on a cold day and brown is still the reigning color. There is a lot more death (riot) than life (dance) in our world right now. Still, our eyes were opened and oh, what wonders we saw!

Is this not charming? (I had to get my knees wet for this photo, by the way – all for the sake of art. As you can tell, I’m not one to suffer in silence.)

Or this. The graceful curl of the dried seed pod (milkweed?), the contrast in color between the underside and the coat – lovely! it doesn’t take much to amaze me, evidently. Go forth and see what He has made; be like the God Who Really Sees.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

March 31, 2018 Compost

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Look ye upon this photo – really look at it. It’s not terribly appealing. If it were a hot summer day, this would also be covered with flies, and a nasty stench would be wafting up to greet the nostrils. There’s almost nothing beautiful about this, unless, like me, you find the collage of colors interesting. But I’ve told you the truth here. In this world, things die and decay, they smell bad. Can this ugly truth be beautiful? Can we look upon an innocent man beaten, bleeding and dying on a cross and see beauty? My friends, the answer is yes, if you know how to look beyond death and see resurrection. If you can look at this photo and see rich, dark soil being used to grow vegetables and flowers, you’ve learned the art of seeing the resurrection. “For though the outer man is decaying, yet the inner man is being renewed day by day.” Though the eggshells and red peppers are decaying, yet the soil is being renewed day by day. Don’t take my word for it – go start your own compost pile and see for yourself. Better yet, look upon the Man who wore the ugliness of death and then reversed it so that your ugly death could be reversed and the soil of your soul renewed to produce beautiful fruit. Until then, you’re just a pile of smelly compost that never changes.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.

March 28, 2018 Sharpen

~ Foodiness ~ 2 Comments

There’s no getting around it – when you sharpen a pencil, some of the good stuff has to go. It seems wasteful, but it’s part of the cost of getting a sharp point with which to draw and color (notice how I avoided leaving a dangling preposition there, and do likewise). It’s interesting how so many things have to be sharpened to be at their best: knives, arrows, scissors, people… Yes, I did that – I added people to the mix. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another, said the Preacher. Being sharpened usually doesn’t feel good, but it equips us to be better tools for God’s service. Put me up against that whetstone; sharpen me like a pencil. The stuff that grinds off or peels away isn’t essential and I’m better off without it. Give me a nice, sharp point and set me loose.

I’ll probably delete this in the morning.