September 11, 2012
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a title-less post
I’ve taken to flipping coins lately. When there’s a hard decision ahead and I honestly want to do the right thing, the thing God wants me to do, I pray first and then I flip. I don’t do it flippantly either, NPI. (You didn’t know that stands for no pun intended?)
I used to resort to the coin thing sometimes but had kind of forgotten about it. Then I read a blog post by Shari Zook about flipping a coin and remembered again how well it worked and what peace it gave me. Shari was John Coblentz’s little big-eyed daughter back in my Maranatha Bible School days in the early 90′s. Now she takes words and whips them into submission and art. And her political views are fascinating. I tried in vain to find her coin-flipping post tonight. Surely she didn’t delete it.
I stayed up till 3:30 a.m. last Friday night writing a post that didn’t feel right when I read it in the light of Saturday. Mostly it made me uncomfortable because it came circling back to my old problem of insecurity and comparison and I think I’ve written enough for two lifetimes on those subjects. But I couldn’t quite let it go. So I flipped a coin and three times the heads came up and I had chosen heads to mean publish. So I’ll publish it. Sometime.
But tonight I’m just saying a few goodnight words while Dan is out combining again. School finally starts for us tomorrow and I’m trying to decide if I should be a copycat and do the chalkboard photos of The First Day. I saw so many darling ones online this fall. You know what I get tired of? I get tired of trying to be orginal. Sometimes I just want to really copy someone and use cliches and admit it because truly there is no new thing under the sun.
It doesn’t seem to be in vogue to have these themed xanga headers that you just pick out and I don’t like the format of this one at all but I hate wasting the time trying to figure them out. Is it showing up to you in a strange narrow format that’s hard to read?
Do yourself this favor before winter comes: Buy some Island Fresh Gain laundry soap. (I guess you can get it in the USA?) Wash your bedspread and sheets in it. Hang in fall wind to dry. Make your bed all fresh. Go to sleep and know you will die happy.
I need to write an ode to all the people who help clean their churches and schools every fall. Deep in the darkness of our church furnace room, sorting through paint & Christmas costumes and pieces of plywood from years gone by, I get this overwhelming sense of gratitude for all the ladies who went before me and all the ladies of all the places where I taught school who scoured and sorted and boxed and set mouse traps and painted. And the men too, of course. It makes me feel like crying, really. It goes beyond the cleaning to the preaching and the planning and the tediousness of small church business meetings and all the nights they sang at the nursing homes.
I love my American friends extremely and Dan & I probably have more family in the States than we do in Canada.
But there are Certain Times when I am so, so grateful to be from my quiet and sometimes boring country, socialized health care and all.
Election Time USA is one of them.
God help us.
I’m forever grateful for parents who taught me respect and honor for all men and lived the words of the Jesus whose kingdom is not of this world.
And now all the words that were whirling in my hooded jacket while I walked in the cold wind tonight have left me.
Goodnight comrades.
Excuse all the italics in this post. Just call me Anne Shirley. Or was it Emily of New Moon whose gruff teacher made fun of her overuse of italics?
*edit: I do not mean to be smug about Canada’s relatively peaceful government OR my political upbringing and beliefs. The peace could change at any time. And the last thing I’m ready to do is argue politics. I waver between being drawn to the news and the facebook rants and feeling so disgruntled by it that I wonder at my sanity for following it at all.
Blessed are the peacemakers. ~Jesus~
Comments (13)
Oh YAY, here you are! The scenery where you are is wonderful! And I can see the header at the top of your post…I like it! I love the photos of you and your family; handsome boys and hubby, pretty girls and pretty mommy. I also noticed 2 very different bridges so close to one another. I LOVE old bridges. I think the flipping a coin idea is funny and WHY didn’t I think of that? ( 8 Do publish that post. You are so loved, everyone will want to read it. Our USA politics…insanity. Awful, ugly things come out when people lie and deny and want all the power and the powerful positions. This is when I’d love to pack up and live in another country for awhile, but I know it’s worse in other countries.
So, I am now very sleepy. My melatonin is working. I’m SO glad you were on here and I hope to read you again SOON!!!! Hugs!
Loved your post…Life is full of small stuff that is so rich if we slow down and savor it ….
I loved your post too. I feel torn between having a burden and standing up for right and truth. I think of examples of Jesus with a whip in the temple and telling the scribes and pharisees they were snakes to sneaking away in a boat and then waking up to find the disciples scared to death because of a storm. I just thought of an old song, ‘With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm’.
We only need wisdom for the day, don’t we? God bless.
Its always good to hear from you Luci!
And yes, I understand the desire of wanting to retreat during election time. I want to, too. Gene is horrified with me this time around because I am so indifferant, and I DON’T CARE anymore. Maybe in four years I will be back to caring.
Have a great week!
I love these beautiful pictures. I say if you like the chalkboard idea, do it. There’s no shame in copying a good idea. Isn’t there a whole website based on that, ie pinterest?? ha.
I actually literally feel sick every time I see a campaign ad or read another article. Just read one from facebook this morning about what will happen if Obama is reelected. I get SO sick of the endless fighting and bashing and conflicts. There is no way for anyone to sort through all the lies and rubbish and know what is actually a fact. I am sick and tired of both democrats and republicans. Did you catch that this makes me feel sick??!! That’s my rant for the day.
And I shamelessly copied everyone else with the chalkboards for school. I didn’t put much thought into it, and I didn’t have enough energy to come up with a different plan!!
And yes, a big hand to any one who cleans churches and schools. This fall, there was a super poor turnout for school cleaning. Come on, people, if you can’t support your school, maybe it’s time to disband it!! (my rant on that goes a little beyond the cleaning- that’s just another symptom of the bigger problem!!)
Sounds like a lot of us are with you on not caring about politics. I get ever so weary reading and hearing about it over and over.
Go ahead and copy everyone else, they copied someone too.
I was old and boring, “Stand right there and smile!” 
I like this post!! I am glad that your coin flipped to you posting that blog you wrote!
I think it is OK not to be so original. Because why work that hard when someone else already thought of a great idea??
Pretty pictures, too! I really like the ones of you with the girls and Dan with the boys!
Never thought about using the coin for simple decisions like those. I might have to try that out
Your header looks fine to me.
I think that there should be another beattitude…blessed are the church cleaners for they shall be blessed. I’m so grateful for those who spend so much time doing that.
Yes, I’m about ready to just get on with the election and get it over with
Your page looks fine ~ not too narrow or anything ~ and yeah, election time here is boring!
publish luci publish!!! glad that your coin flipping means publishing. even though i can understand writing and then later going…like really cindy? oh wait. that would be—ME.
i like when you write. how you write. because i like how you think. and btw who you are too! 
original shmiginal. i’m more of a copy cat kinda girl myself. probably when i think i’ve thought up something original, it’s only short term memory loss. i’ve forgotten who and what inspired me. haha.
your format is easy to read. and i’m liking your header too. neat picture of you and the girls too!
love to you in your week!
Thank you stopping by.
I agree so much with even so Lord Jesus, come. I don’t think it will be long but neither did my parents. In the meantime we work and pray, don’t we?
i’ll look forward to the coin toss post. ! sounds like a subject I can relate to.
and american politics are so exhausting. i hate them. and to show how out of touch i am I had to ask shayne a few wks ago who was even running. i mean beside obama..we all know he is. ugh. :/
happy new week luc~