A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Poem

My Drive to Watch

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So Miss Kate listed the five minute Friday word and I was surprised to see the word Drive.   Not sure why I was surprised, I just was.  I suppose it fits right?  The Olympics are on right now and we’ve been watching them.  Seeing the drive in these world class athletes is amazing. The power as they swim, fight, board, scull, run and more is all influenced by their drive to do their best.   Amazon affiliate links will be used in this post, no affect on you, helps me be encouraged. 

My Drive to watch, person swimming in race

My Drive to Watch

I suppose how to see
drive depends
on the situation
you are in.

Is drive the mental force
behind which
pushes you on.
Helping you succeed?

Or is drive the emotional
weight of expectation,
the view that others hold
of your capabilities?

Is drive in how you think
or is drive in how you feel?
I’m guessing it’s a
combination of the two.

Thought and feeling mingled.
If emotions become jangled
Challenged by pain or
Expectation.

Withdrawal, self-preservation,
quitting without knowing
happens ever so
easily, so sadly.

I’ve seen the grit,
the determination in
Skateboarders, falling,
then choosing to continue.

Watching as one
comes from behind
digging deep and
finding within, success!

And then observing
as even with deep drive
the mental, the emotional
saddens with loss.

Disappointment
overwhelming individuals
so they can’t
even look up.

And others, despite
that pain of loss
Able to celebrate
the joy of winners longside.

My drive to watch?
Seeing the grins,
the delight, and
the sharing of joy.

My drive to watch
Swimmer

As I consider my drive to watch I stop to think how much of this compares to our lives as believers.   So often it’s easy to sit on the sidelines and merely observe what others are doing.

In two books that I’m reading with my lad “life behind the wall” and “Stranger on the road to Emmaus” (affliate links) I’ve been challenged to remember action matters in the life of a believer.  That watching on the sidelines is NOT what we are called to do.  God calls for us to be perfect, to be holy as he as perfect and holy.   (Matthew 5:48)

In Life behind the wall young people are called to action.  To back up their words with how they act.  Some conversations ensue as the lad and I chat. 

In The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, I see God acting, always on behalf of his people.  Pulling thoughts and ideas together, scripture interwoven together.  Seeing how thought and feelings influence action.  Again, I need to be more like God, see people as his creation.  It’s been mind opening to my faults, my sin in the eyes of a holy God. 

So how will my drive to watch be changed, be … CHALLENGED in light of what I learn?   How can I see people as God sees them and how will to change what I do?  Will I allow this drive of thoughtfulness be mingled with my emotions to show care and concern to a wider variety of people?   I need to do, to become something more. 

Order of Reconnecting

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Order is the word of the day over at Miss Kate’s.   I’ve two thoughts in mind as I’ve been pondering what to write but hubsters keeps interrupting my thinking as he’s bustling about occasionally asking me questions.  He missed me while I away for my six days of work elsewhere.  So I should expect these interruptions as part of the order of reconnecting eh?  🙂  And perhaps my thoughts will end up going in that direction rather than in the directions I was originally considering. 

Order of Reconnecting

Time away
Work it calls
Another area
Trouble has
Can you help?

Travel reminbursement
Hotel and food
Paying time
Driving
Three hours away.

Certainly I can help
but First must bring
order to home
Helping a boy manage
Things when I’m not home.

Dad will help too
but when hard at work
a boy has to manage
feed rabbits, self
and to his own work.

Gramma one day
Came over to help
Cleaning a house
Bringing order to strife.

Open my return
With arms open wide
a hubster’s wild grin
and a son’s soft smile.

Welcome home
said both
helping unpack
Then order to house
Ensued without.

Checking the bunnies
Seeing wildness
in the garden.
Beans must be picked
Gooseberries be jammed!

As mom worked away
Glad a clean house
not to make
A son and a dad
checks in often make

It’s the order of
Reconnecting
The family you see
When mom’s away
Things not as should be!

Tiredness not withstanding
Things in order must make
So the time away
really was,
something of a break. 🙂

Gooseberry-jelly

Additional Thoughts

I have to admit, I might have made it sound easy coming home and getting the slack taken care of.  I did, at one point, let my tiredness get the better of me when I noticed the lad didn’t pick the gooseberries he’d promised to do.  But forgiveness flows easily around here, especially since the Lord God so easily forgives me.  🙂 

Imagine it… he removes our sin as far as the east is from the west.  So great a distance that can never ever meet. How can I not forgive?  How can my son not?  

And besides, it all gets done evenutally.  You gotta check out the lovely gooseberry jelly I made! 

All Summer Long

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When I first saw theword prompt this week you know what immediately popped into my head?

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

These words from the song Great is Thy Faithfulness.   Before I knew it, I was mentally belting out all the words to this wonderful song.  Kept me good company while I was doing bunny chores this morning.  🙂   Anyways, it lead to this poem All Summer Long.

All Summer Long, rock on gravel background

All Summer Long

An interesting summer
It’s proving to be.
A part-time job
Keeping me rather busy.

A boy with arm
Broken in two
How will he manage?
What will he do?

A lesson is learned
Understanding gained.
No wonder why mom
and his dad complained!

Couple years back
Limbs broken did.
A bike accident
and a saved kid.

I mentioned to lad
the providence of God.
Mom took a fall
It was rather odd.

But that meant
She was home
When with broken arm
he did roam.

And with a
just fixed truck
to take him as speedily
as a flying duck!

No need to ponder
what do I do?
Mom has it in hand
so I can boo-hoo.

Mom could be there
to just walk him through
Procedures and waiting
in emergency room.

As I sit here and ponder
I see it full well
how all summer long
How God in me dwells.

He knows all the plans
and thinking we do,
He knows how to work
His good will in me too.

All Summer Long, rock on gravel background

Scripture Insight?

Proverbs 15:3 – The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

Deuteronomy 32:10 – In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye.

Psalm 121:8 – The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Everytime I think back to that night I am amazed at how God worked everything out for him.

Hubby had struggled to get the truck fixed, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was legally drivable.  I had walked my route 1000’s of times and never stumbled there, and yet that day, I took a hard fall. My knee was rather stiff but was able to function.  I had just come in from doing the rabbits and was sitting down to work when in stumbled my white faced boy and his wonky arm.

Could he have coped without me?  YES.  I have a level-headed young man in this house.

But a boy who loves efficiency, had to admit that God had this one well in hand.  You couldn’t have asked for a more speedy response with no need for him to problem-solve.   I’ll remember this God-moment, all summer long and beyond I think.

Isn’t God marvellous?

Give Care Well-Deserved

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So Five minute Friday strikes again!  WOOT WOOT!  🙂  Miss Kate has given us the word prompt of Deserve.  When I heard this word I recalled a conversation I had with a rabbit friend over the exchange of a couple of bunnies.  We love our bunnies, but we move them on to other places at times.  Sometimes, we get attached, and then we worry about will they get the home we want for them?   Will they have people who will give care well-deserved? 

Give Care Well Deserved text, image of black holland lop bunny

Give Care Well-Deserved

HEY! I see you have a bunny!
A black one, maybe a fuzzy?

Yes, yes I do.
But only a fuzzy carrier
I think.

Oh, well, let me think
Would you do a trade?

Sure, I know this gal
I’d happily do a trade for
Bunnies such as hers.

So she came
we talked and laughed

Learned a few things
about plants and bunnies
and methods of feeding.

We talked differences in size
and health and temperament.

And so she left
with one bunny but two
And two bunnies stayed.

Her words
I’ve raised and loved them.

And now I can
trust them to a home
that give care well-deserved.

And so I KNOW
Deep within, that

My little ones
Black coated though they be,
Will get care well-deserved too.

Gives me pause to consider
Do we fuss about the care

Other loved ones deserve?
The sad, the hurting, the lonely,
The full-loved, family and friends?

 

These are the parents of one of my new little big ones

Scriptural Thoughts

Proverbs 27:23  Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,

Psalm 147:9  He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.

Job 12:7-10  “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

Luke 14:5  And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

In The Quiet

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sitting in the quiet
watching the wind
carrying rain,
leaves, papers flying.

wind chimes ringing,
chairs tumbling
end over end
the world seems
so busy in the quietness.

then with a
bang and a whir
the fire alarm goes.
someone’s in trouble
rise to the alarm.

wind forgotten
as green-light
trucks and cars
race carefully to
the station.

life in small-town
ontario with
volunteers hard at work
helping those
when things are hard.

makes me appreciate
the quiet
of what all say
is a busy street
in front my house.

yet compared to
busy street in
big city ontario,
this street
so quiet is.

perspective
matters
always,
even in
quiet.

in the quiet

It’s five minute Friday and I’m a bit late in posting this, but life happens you know?   It’s a rainy day here in small-town Ontario and as I was sitting here in my new-to-me home office watching the rainfall this poem came to me.   I don’t know if it’s any great shakes but the good of living in a small quiet town appealed to me today.  🙂 

I’m looking forward to seeing what others have written this week.  It’s good to take time to encourage each other don’t you think?  I don’t feel like I had a chance for a lot of silence this week, so sitting and watching the rain really appealed to me.  Not hugely productive, but nice.  🙂   

Lift Me Up

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As soon as I heard this prompt Lift (provided by Miss Kate) I thought of this song.  And thus I’m sharing it with you today.  It’s a nice song isn’t it?  Even though in the song the phrase Raise me up is the repeated phrase, I often sing as you lift me up.  I don’t know why I do that, and it’s the first song that came up on youtube when I put in the phrase Lift me up.  I wonder why that is?   They have slightly different connotations don’t they?  Yet, are often used interchangeably.    So let’s see what I do with the phrase lift me up.

Lift Me Up

Lift Me Up
Up momma, up!
Comes the demand
Me UP!

Lifting a wee one up
Suddenly they can see
Pointing at the elephant
Far in the distance.

A comfort to see
A joy to point out
Moments to share of
happiness and delight.

Lift Me Up!
Please, someone, notice
I’m struggling
Mom sick, Dad can’t cope

Stopping for a moment
a meal provided,
a listening ear or
an email sent.

Suddenly dad’s
Lack of coping
Mom’s illness bad
Is a burdened shared.

A bunny,
A delivery
Ever so hot
Struggling, not well.

Water on ears
A slight misting
with wet feet
Babes cared for.

Thinking maybe
The doe will be gone
By morning.
But perkiness instead!

Sharing a load
Easing of heat
A lifting of abilities
and suddenly spark returns.

Gah, stupid bumblebees!
You’re supposed to be nice
Calm things
Not easily offended!

But too many
Coming and Going
Not a picture taking spot
Anymore…angry bees. Run!

Night comes
Darkness falls
A nest filled, then lifted
A nest relocated safely.

Morning, bees flying
No more anger
Picture taking spot back
Spirits raised.

So many ways
To lift me up
To protect and comfort
People, animals, burdens

lift me up, bumblebee nest

Further thoughts

Those bumblebees yesterday.  I’ve been nurturing a nest of them in an old rabbit nestbox that momma took over in the spring.  I’ve kept them safe from the weather.  But now… now there are too many bees coming and going.  I suppose it was just a matter of time that my picture-taking spot (for the bunnies) would be compromised.  You can’t keep that many bees happy all the time. 

I fled.  Did you know that bumblebees can sting more than once and if they land on your head it’s with the intent to crawl in and sting you? 

Waited until evening when all bees would be in bed and relocated them 20 feet away.  A spot with less traffic and still very protected from wind, weather and picture-taking people.   Bees protected, nature pollinators survive. And no more bunnies (or people) to annoy accidentally, and get stung. 

Scriptural Insights

Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. – Philippians 2:4

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2

Be hospitable to one another without complaining. – 1 Peter 4:9

And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works. – Hebrews 10:24

Close Communion Recovered

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It’s that day of the week again when Miss Kate gives us the word prompt of the week.  This week we are working with the word Recover.  Recover… to cover to have something placed over or around you, or to blanket an area (such as a ground cover).   To recover is to regain something, or to go back to normal, or even to retrieve a product for another use.  So knowing all this, what will I come up?  And so it mostly wrote itself.  Close Communion Recovered

Close Communion Recovered
Wooden blocks connected together on blue background. Teamwork, network and community concept.

Close Communion Recovered

A bridge broken
A deceiver came
and took a truth
and twisted it.

Just a bit
Just enough to sow
Doubt and confusion,
A turning to look at self.

A heart broke
Close communion lost
Yet still sought
And looking found.

Consequences spelled out
Pain and hardship
In working and childbirth
A head would be crushed.

Over the years
A great heart
Would continue to be
Broken but healing sought.

Always
Over and over again
Consequences laid out
End results promised.

Would people ever listen
Could a bridge to
Close communication
Again be built.

Then one day
A Son.
Born of a young girl
Who trusted God.

Out of a line
of people who
trusted God
Sought close communion.

This girl
and Her hubby
Learned to listen
To ponder God’s actions.

And so a boy
became a man
Growing in wisdom
Knowledge.

At age 12 he
astounded the teachers.
At age 30 he
frightened rulers.

He drew people in
Proclaiming
Son of man
Son of God

A bridge
close communion
with God
could be recovered.

Listen to him
Follow him
Chose the way
Of death.

Of death?
Really, was that the answer?
Death?
A Death chosen.

Death on a tree
burial
but listen
Recovery comes.

When Living
he ROSE!!!
That’s the way.
Death defeated!

This is how
a heel is bruised.
But
A head is crushed.

That head
Pride, selfish,
Green, Deception
Defeated by Life.

This life
One given sacrificially
the only way
To recovery.

A crushed head
leads to
close communion
recovered, with God.

Close Communion Recovered
Bread, Red Wine and book, top view, copy space.

Scripture Speaks

Genesis 3:1-5

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Psalm 2:7

7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
    today I have begotten you.

Mark 16:5-6

 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.