Perspective

Recently I went into a well known ladies lingerie store looking for stocking stuffers for 3 grown daughters.  Yes, daughters.  I have never raised sons.  Which might explain my horror at seeing a young boy - maybe 5 years old - wandering...  No, more like scampering .... zig-zagging through the racks and displays of bras, negligees and, well ... undies.

Being the rather modest person I am, I found myself wondering, what responsible mother in her right mind would expose a young boy to these flashy displays and nearly nude mannikins?   Not to mention the bright posters!  What kind of message was this sending him?  What notions of women was he forming in that pliable mind?

Then I looked more closely at what he was doing as he scampered around.  Completely unaware of the products for sale, he was pulling the size-indicating labels off of the drawers that held the extra merchandise, and switching them around. 

Oh the industriousness of little boys.  For me, another reminder that perspective changes everything.

Suddenly

Here's a miraculous trick:
             Go to bed a wife and mother.
             Wake up, a grandma!

Suddenly a new name, a new purpose for living.  You discover that Grandma Bear is just as ferocious as Mama Bear but with more knowledge, wisdom, and cunning.

Suddenly your fight for the future is not just for the next generation. It's for every generation to come.

How does all of that change overnight?  Maybe that's the miracle of birth - more than just the birth of a baby.

Oh! And P.S.  He is the sweetest baby in the world.

Snow Sky

We had a fresh dusting of snow tonight.  And at 11 o’clock at night as I stood out in the back yard I looked up through the criss-crossed branches of the big old elm tree, where the downy snow had settled like sleepy white doves, up, up to the canopy above.  It was what I call a snow sky.  Anyone who has lived on the Canadian prairies knows what a snow sky looks like.

I caught my breath at the hush.  The stillness.  The quiet.  Even the highway was quiet at this time of night.  And the light!   A week ago I had been out in the yard about this time of night – when there was no snow on the ground.  The dark was suffocating and a little scary as I took the garbage to the alley.  But tonight!  Tonight the snow brought such a peaceful light.  I felt I could hear God breathe.  Right there beside me, over me, around me.

Though my sins were as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.  Snow, that brings light and lightness, peace and peacefulness, prayer and thanksgiving.  And joy.  Always joy.

I’m tired.  It’s been a bit of a rough week but I’m glad I took the time at this late hour after the house had all gone to bed and turned out the lights, to step outside into this holy hush.  To breathe, and find my joy again. 

Choose Joy

Start a blog?? What in the world for!  There are enough words floating around out there in cyberspace.  Why do I have to add mine to the mix?  

And yet, over the past 2 years the niggling thought, the odd comment from a friend - "You should start a blog" - wouldn't go away.

So here I sit on this learning curve.  Bear with me as I fashion and piece this project together.

Meanwhile welcome to my world, where I choose joy.

I am not blissfully oblivious to the things going on in the world around me.  Heaven knows I have had and continue to have troubles of my own.  But I do choose not to make that my focus.

One thing I know.  We can choose joy.  After all, isn't joy actually looking for God at work - even in the tough times?

Join me as I look for scraps of joy in everyday life.  I look forward to your company.