Potholes

Woodsy dirt road wet rocks jutting

'neath my wobly feet slick with slush

heart murmers to keep my chin up

look up

look ahead

trust my journey my bearings my road

but potholes crack from underneath

uncertain footsteps

threatening to sink foundations

swallowing up horizons promised when

the road was laid

seems pointless really to fill them

when I know the ice will come again

been done before

and no one will know I

traveled this path

shove my hands into my thin pockets

fingering dog treats, a lost button

a woodpecker raps and the hollowed tree

feels like me

wind caresses fir branches swooped low

muddied greens sweep a brisk breeze

past my cheeks

what's the point I wonder

of potholes of sunrises of nothing new

under the sun--when it shows--

the crisp ribbon of air bites my nose

for what's a dream but a whisper of

cedar the scent a tease and gone

I stand still, motion seems daunting

do I press forward 'round pits in my path

or do I splash triumphantly in them

or do I turn back, forsaking the road

altogether

or am I dispairingly missing something

chipping chickadees greet me with cheer

I distrust

their acrobatics amusing

yet reminders of what I cannot

My eyes grant gavity's pull

to the hole in my path my soul

the ice crystals cracking the edges

and I notice mirrored clouds moving

forward, graceful, trusting.

Forward. Graceful. Trusting.

Raising my chin I hear buds

in the greens around me,

birthing from the dead,

pressing onward, pink and swelling

the promise of spring.

My fingers loosen and forsake

warmth and

hiding and

I raise my arms

as the firs instruct

close my eyes and bathe in

whatever sliver of sunshine

granted me through the

tangle of salal and alder.

And I give thanks for the potholes

lying in my path

those ugly stumbling things

reminding me that the walk

is always mine to take

and that a slow journey

over and around them

is better than none

and I know the embrace

of rushing waters filling

my spirit

for the road ahead.

If You Have a Moment...

...would you mind participating in my poll for the week?  I'm trying to decide if I want to hang onto all of the links I've saved, and don't want to rid them if they are useful to my readers.  Please?  Just one vote?

Thanks much,

Hot Cereal For Breakfast

Seeing as boxed cereals from the market (even the "natural" ones) are about the worst thing we can eat ever eat, much less serve our children, I thought I'd share an easy hot cereal recipe.  I generally use whatever I have on hand, and some of the ingredients are probably not the "best", much less soaked, but it's still a vast improvement over whatever they're calling "food" in those grocery aisles.  You could make the same cereal with just *one* grain, too.  For example, we really like millet alone at times, topped with peach jam and chopped walnuts.

Hot Cereal Recipe

1 cup hulled barley

2 cups millet

1 1/3 cups amaranth

1 cup sweet brown rice

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup pumpkin seeks

1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

Combine all ingredients, rinse and strain.  Yes, I know it looks like bird seed.  What do you think those boxed cereals look like before they're heat processed, turned into slurry, mixed with food coloring and chemicals and then extruded into fake little balls and stars?  Somewhere, they start out as real food (in a time long, long ago...)

Put the mix onto baking sheets and toast in a 350 degree or warmer oven, stirring on occasion.  It will be dry and smell nutty.

At this point, you can just jar up the whole mix and take out as much as you want to cook up at a time.

How to cook it up:

Grind up however much you desire to make.  I use my food processor, but you might try your blender.  Grinding it up will make it more creamy, and cook up faster too.

Combine 1 cup of your ground cereal mix with 3 cups of water, a pinch of salt, and cinnamon or other flavoring of your choice (we also like cardamom, or nutmeg, or vanilla...)  Bring up to a boil, lower heat and simmer covered for about 15-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed.  It is very similar to making rice; all the grains will soak up the water.  Be sure to stir on occasion while it is cooking or it will get very clumpy.

That's it!  To serve, put some of the hot cooked cereal in a bowl, top with milk and whatever sweetener your family enjoys.  You could even mix in some dried or fresh fruit, chopped nuts, or yogurt, or applesauce...  

This is a very satisfying meal to have on a cold winter morning, it is inexpensive to make, and it is delicious!

Enjoy,

Red and Yellow, Black and White...

Not ignorance, but the ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge. 
Alfred Whitehead

I just finished reading The Help, which I am sure by the sheer amount of reviews and whatnot many if not most of you have already read or seen on screen.  Amazon, so far, lists more than 5100 reviews for this first time novelist, most of them positive.  I was curious who would plug in a rating of "one" and what they would say, but was afraid my worst fears would manifest itself with a plethora of "Hilly"s taking to the reviews while they were setting their hair and waiting for the good ol' days to return.

Mostly, I just sort of sat sober when I was finished.  One, that this history was incredibly recent.  Two, that I was so clueless about it.  And three, that I was so naive to be really stinkin' annoyed by people who assumed that because I was white, I was racist.   Well, I'm not.  Racist, that is.  But fool enough to be that clueless, I suppose so.

I spent half my growing up years in England growing up not only among Brits, but among other "Yanks" from all over the states (and thus cultural areas).  I guess that afforded me the blinders.  Even when I putzed in the states every so many years, I lived in places like California, where my first "very best friend in the world" was Jocelyn, who was black, and that didn't turn a single head. 

I remember only two events that nicked my blindspots while growing up.  One, was an argument with a relative about how yes I would certainly marry a black man if that's how it worked out.  I don't even remember why that conversation came up but I do remember being so angry!  The second event was meeting one of my husband's relatives, and how she narrowed her eyes asking all about the Greek in me (my mom is Greek) and how her neighbors were Greek and what *those Greek folks* were like.  All I can say is that I still loved those women during those conversations.  But sheesh.

The other book I recently read was this one:






...and I tweeted how that book was about the best book I have ever read.  I feel like the Lord just grew me up as not only a Christian woman, but as a white woman who needed to know about the kind of history I am hoping to be living at the tail end of.  And yet, I am not naive about even that anymore.

Where I live, people are white (and I'm not just saying that because the sun doesn't shine here enough to tan).  The fact is, once you cross over the mountains to the east and head into valleys where all of our major farmlands are, most of the farmhands you see are...Hispanic.  They pick the fruit, they clean the houses, the raise the children...of white people.  I see it more now.

I guess I just pray.  Because only God can change hearts and I think it somehow begins with hearts that already love the Lord.  I pray for courage, for the devil's grip on our nation to loosen, to see somehow in my lifetime on earth a taste of that grand banquet to come, where God is glorified not only by our marvelous differences but for our love and fellowship for one another and for the similarity of being in Christ.  I guess if that makes me a foolish white woman, then that's where I am right now.

May God grant me the courage to keep my eyes and heart open.

Blessings,

One Way to Do a Bible Word Study

I'm not unaware that my "free time" is going to be very limited later this spring once baby arrives and I will then have, by God's grace, seven (SEVEN!) children to love and train up.  Right now I am like a ravenous Bible woman, reading as much as I can and trying to store up the manna for the leaner non-sleep fog I'm heading for.

I thought I'd share one way to dig deeper into the Word if you have a good 20 or 30 minutes in the evening to chip away at it.

For many reasons, the word coming to me in the last years has been "Fear not."  I decided to podcast on that topic, and you can hear it here if you haven't already.  To help me prepare, I did a word study on that phrase, "Fear not".  The first thing I did was plug in those words and then print out every single passage that it was commanded.  I used (and use) the very simple KJV Bible search; it's nothing fancy.  That's why I like it (no bunny trails, no man's interpretation of "Greek",  and no opinions!).

Then I cut apart all of the strips of verses.  I know I could have inquired on other phrases, such as, say, "do not fear", but I decided to simply focus on the phrase I had been meditating on.  I always use the King James Bible; I have confidence none of the verses will be missing.

Then, I read and pondered them all.  This usually takes a while, especially if I'm really paying attention (which I ought to be!).  It has never failed me:  common threads became clear and I started to really see God's consistent Holy character.  Different themes offered themselves, and I began to put together verses that said basically the same things but in different ways. I noticed that the command "Fear not" was usually followed by a reason....and I was able to pile those reasons together in similtude.

Of course, just depending on verses taken out of context is no good.  So, once they were in their various groups, I read them in the Word, taking into account the purpose, the people, the time and events.  Doing that made those groupings even more clear.

I started writing down what each grouping of verses was basically teaching me.  It was pretty hard not to feel like a little kid whose Father was delighting in!  He was revealing His Word to me in ways that made me SO excited; it was like putting puzzle pieces together, or having ponderings answered, or talking with Him back and forth and Him hearing me laughing say, "You are AWESOME, God!" or finding me contrite and asking for forgiveness at times.  Always, He was (and is) teaching me.  But doing this was one way for me to actually pay Him some greater attention, and for Him to tune my ears.

Once I started writing the main points out, it was easy to confirm it all with the Scripture I'd been reading.  I thought about posting all of the verses along with my podcast blog post, but, seriously, it was about three pages long!  I figured that if anyone listening did not like the sound of what I said, they would seek out the Truth as they ought on their own, anyway.

I am but a frail woman still longing to see God and to know Him face to face (someday!).  But when opportunity affords, I delight in taking the time to dig in His Word.  I pray that through the trials, I will somehow remember what He taught me, that His Word won't return void, that I will have good cause in all things to "Fear Not".

Because of Jesus,