Scattershooting on a May evening...

Wrote this early last week and intended to write more, but I didn't.  Thought I'd share anyway.
----------------------------------

Scattershooting on a May evening...


The thought occurred to me t' other day that I am among what I suppose to be a significant minority of people in the world... Have YOU ever seen your reflection in a bucket of honey?

I am feeling absolutely, incredibly rich this week. It started with the honey thing. I'd come home from my friend Sharla's health food sort of store with my co-op order and was putting away my grains and things. While I was at it, I thought I'd drag out my 5 gal. bucket of local raw honey and refill my small honey jars. I know this is a common thing for some of you large families, but we'd only bought this, our first bucket of honey, about two months ago. I'd dipped into it a couple times and yet this is the first time I noticed my reflection. I immediately was impressed (good heavens, not by my reflection!). How many people in the world can say they've done that? And better yet, how many people have paused to reflect upon their reflection?

You see, it's not all about what you have. It's what you think about what you have, isn't it?  Do you stop to enjoy the wonderful world around you? Your home, your conveniences, your friends, your family, your grass, your trees, flowers, pets, food, health, books, sights, smells... the list is endless! Do you realize that every little bit of it is a gift from your heavenly Father?

I have often felt very far from Yahweh, often felt that the Bible wasn't enough. Good, great even, but not quite enough. I've recognized his gifts in different ways over the years but lately I feel like I just woke up to the fact that he really, truly delights in me and is expressing it through his creation, through the particulars of my life and my situation. Above all, I consider that because he's placed me where I am (both physically and spiritually)  I have ample opportunity to notice his gifts.

Surely, I hope you know I don't say all this to boast. It is my hope that you, too, will give some thought to his special touch in your life. For me it's the smell of honeysuckle flowers when I walk to the barn with the sun shining on the morning dew, the dogs at my side, the goats eagerly calling, the cow mooing quietly, the chickens clucking contentedly, the ridiculous guineas squawking at nothing.... What a life! I melt inside.  The creek, the rippling water falls, the trees around me, the birds singing in the evening, the cool well water.  My Father knows how I delight in these things. I feel so unworthy of the life I live, the children and spouse he's given me. How many people can say that they are living the very life they would chose to live? I can! I love it!

I'm interested in so many things. If I had 14 lives I'd not exhaust my interests... to travel, to live by the ocean (or on it!) and study it... to study! So many things to learn and explore and try my hand at! And yet I would chose this very existence out of the lot. As a stay-at-home wife and mother in rural USA, there's so little not open to me. My husband, if he doesn't exactly encourage my interests, doesn't mind my many hobbies and routines. He takes a sort of pleasure in them himself, I dare say. And the children! Oh my, with a family at home there are so many people to share life with that it hardly matters what we do, we always learn and enjoy things.