Glimpses of Life – Page 114

Reflecting

The day is just about over.

Ran errands.

Went to Peets for a hot chocolate.

Drove to Shilshole beach and watched the waves crash onto the rocks, the birds soaring in the air, the boats sailing by and had an ice cream.

Thought about my life, introspected and reflected.

Got the battery changed in the car.

Came home and made dinner — homemade blueberry muffins, vegetarian teriyaki skallops, rice and fresh green beans.

Watching my husband from the bed as he sits in front of his computer and I listen to Christian contemporary music on Pandora.

“My Desire” by Jeremy Camp.

“You want to be whole, you want to have purpose inside
You want to have virtue and purify your mind”

One day I’ll be whole. One day — in heaven.

I’m not so mad at God anymore. Just a little. But He’s slowly healing my stony heart and making it a heart of flesh. Thank you Jesus!

Coffee and Hot chocolate

Can’t speak too much about the best type of coffee there is.

But, at the age of 8 or 9, maybe younger, our breakfast staple was coffee (with milk and sugar of course) and toast. Normally the toast would be buttered or — egads! — my cousins would lather it with mayonnaise.

We would dunk the bread in the coffee. Always — but always — the coffee was Bustelo.

No decaf existed in my day, that I’m aware of.

“American” coffee seems to be so — mild.

My husband likes Starbucks. Bitter and strong.

I have taken quite a liking to hot chocolate. Starbucks cocoa is so bitter it seems. Tully’s is okay but for some reason it tastes watery to me no matter what type of milk they use. Chocolati is good but can tastes too chocolatey — if that’s possible.

But I have found a place called Peets in Seattle. Not too sweet, not too bitter. And it tastes the same no matter what type of milk I use.

There is one other chocolate that my mother sends me. You grate it and put it into warm milk. That with some edam cheese, diced large and then put into the hot chocolate.

Yum! Makes me hungry.

I wonder if there will be chocolate in heaven?

Life as it is on earth.

Judgment

Stop it!

Is there no end to judging people based on what they did as young people?

Can’t we age gracefully and forget all the garbage from the past?

I know that the past shapes the present but then let’s live in the present.

The Silent Treatment

Two sides to this coin —

First it gives us an opportunity to compose ourselves so that we don’t say or do something that we may regret later.

Second it’s a form of separation.

Separation is not usually good though as it can turn from a temporary to a permanent state.

How does the silent treatment work with God? Are we truly silent or are we really saying something when we’re not saying it?

Does God turn off His all-knowingness to partake in this process?

I see You smiling. God waits for us to “come to our senses” as we go through this sometimes ludicrous process. With Him and with others.

For He is always there, never abandoning — a constant, even when we think we’re giving Him the silent treatment.

Uniqueness

End of the day. My back hurts. I’ve been doing a lot of gardening yesterday and today.

Have almost all of the plants in. Only need 3 more and I’ll be done.

Does it make sense to do this much work if one is considering moving soon? Not that we have a place to move to yet but … gotta be ready!

Tomorrow I’ll be going to “campmeeting.” It’s a Seventh-day Adventist Christian retreat. I used to spend a whole 9 days there when the boys were younger. But now it’s just me so I go only on Saturdays.

The speakers are fantastic — usually. And I usually wind up seeing people I only see when I go there.

There are sometimes more than 3000 people in attendance which is quite different than attending a church every week that has 15 or so people attending. We are a part of a much bigger crowd and every year it’s visible.

Isn’t that how life is though? We think we have thoughts that are only ours but if we were transparent we would see/know that there are others who have the same thoughts.

Or perhaps it’s something that we “do” differently that we think is unique — yet if we were transparent about it we would find out that others “do” the same thing.

We are not as unique as we think ourselves to be.

Life … as it is.

Customer Service

Starting out to be an irritating day.

I had ordered two different sets of DVD’s — two different places.

Called to check on the status of both of them. At one place I was told that the gentleman who can help me (because it was an internet order) is out of the office until Thursday. Uh, really? And, no one else can help me. Uh, no. Uh, really? Okayyyyy …

The second place I called said “oh, your order is backordered.” Uh, really, how about emailing me and letting me know that? Response? “Well, we’re having problems with the changing of personnel and one DVD is still pending, the others are here. Oh wait, I see it’s come in.” Uh, really?

Is it me or is customer service going downhill quickly?

Avatar

Everyone I know raved about the movie Avatar. We watched it last night and I have to say — I didn’t think it was that great. After awhile it got boring.

So — I guess I don’t flow with the rest of the world. What else is new?

Church and Brain function

Tomorrow I will be preaching at church. My sermon title is “Instrument of Peace.” I haven’t finalized everything that I will be saying yet but it’s formulating in my head.

Sometimes it feels like I work better under pressure.

In addition, I’ll be having the special music for the day singing a song called Adore. Adoring Jesus …

So much to do at home that sometimes I don’t do anything or minimal because my brain doesn’t seem to function well when it thinks it has too much to do. The weird thing is that I make my own plans for the day so the “things to do” are all things that I can do but don’t necessarily have to do.

Life … as it is.

Enchiladas & Temperance

Enchiladas for dinner tonight with fresh pineapple.

I wonder if the pineapple in heaven will taste the same as the one here. I enjoy fresh pineapple. Yummmmm …

I’m teaching the young adults tomorrow in Sabbath School. The topic is temperance. Good topic for all of us to study.

I have a young adult in my home who shall remain nameless who is enthralled with his new iPad. I’m trialing it to see how it works.

Current events

Spent the morning doing “normal” things. Laundry, painting, putting things away.

Will be picking Sam up at the airport today. He’ll be here one week and then he’ll be off again for an indeterminate amount of time. It’s nice to be able to travel to places where you often thought of. Meeting “different” people.

The news is talking about the oil in the Gulf Coast and what would happen if there were a hurricane. Pretty scary stuff.

Doesn’t get better either with North & South Korea at each other’s throats.

Closer to the end of this world as we know it — Jesus is coming back soon to take us home.

Yet, I don’t feel anxious about things happening in the world. I tend to get anxious about everyday things like if I have enough food for people who I invite over for dinner.