Worth a thousand words

I had great hopes for blogging. Every day? Clearly not, but… maybe a few times a week. AT LEAST weekly… or… well… let’s face it… more than once a month looks like it’s the best I can do. Of course, there have been moments I wanted to share, and I hope someday to share them… if my poor memory will retain those moments until my poor schedule (or a crack-bucks overload) will accommodate that.


This memory, however, will not wait… so forgive me if I skip a few weeks & later take a blog-flashback or two.

This weekend, the goose & I headed out to the park. The plan was to meet some friends, snap some pics for a sweet boy’s first birthday, pick up a few new leaves for our “collection” & check out all the fun fountains. While we were waiting on our friends, the goose explored a bit, tested out the best jumping & climbing spots, and I snapped a few test-shots.

The goose was an excellent helper, thanks to the bag of starbursts hay-hay brought along, & was eager to get in at least one picture with her BFF. So at the last (and largest) fountain, she climbed up next to her friend, put on her best smile, lost her balance & fell right in. While I could attempt to describe the next few moments, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are four:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All’s well that ends well though. The goose dried off, walked to the car in my jacket, called Daddy & proudly announced that she would not need a bath… she already had hers… in the fountain.

Holding On

I love this picture… sure it’s a little fuzzy (that’s what you get with a cell phone camera), no, it’s not artistic, but… I love it. After a long day of preparation & an early morning at the hospital, this is where the Goose ended up Monday afternoon… in Momma’s lap, holding on to her blankie & to her “bracelets”. The child who abhors band-aids (& cries if anyone even says the word) would not give up her pink & purple hand-wrap that the nurse kindly let her keep long after her IV was gone. She wore it all day, even when wet, even when coated in syrup. She wouldn’t let it go. Maybe it was some sort of battle-prize. (she seemed more excited about it than the snow white Barbie she got upon our return home) Maybe she just liked the colors. Who knows… but it was hers & no amount of bribery was getting it off.

I felt the same way…. Holding on… refusing to let go… for hours I held her, rocked her, slept beside her… I didn’t want to let go… not again… because that was the hardest part of my day.

I remember the first time I let her go… when she was just a tiny baby… handing her to the nurse & watching them walk away to surgery. I cried, of course, but I did it… I let go. And it was then that I understood so clearly that she isn’t really mine. I understood that I had to let her go, just for a little while so she could be better for a long time. I understood that she is God’s child, so much more than she is mine & that HE would hold her for me… He would hold her while I couldn’t… then and throughout her whole life. I understood that this was just the first time I would have to let her go… no matter how hard it was for me.

On Monday, I thought it would be easier. I thought, “I’ve done this before. I know God will hold her for me. It won’t be so hard this time.” But I was wrong. It was harder. The last words I heard were cries for me & I couldn’t & can’t let those go… no matter how hard I try or how much I want them to be erased from my memory.

It seems no matter how much I know… no matter how much I trust… I still have trouble letting go… even for a little while. I know another day will come, when I will have to let her go again… and I know who will be there to hold her when I can’t, but until then, I’m holding on as much as I can. I have my goose, she has her “bracelet”, & He’s holding on to us both.

Adventures in GI-Land

Well, the Goose is set for a little "adventure" on Monday morning... after years of tummy troubles, she will undergo several "intestinal investigations"(the details of which I will spare you, but all sound like LOTS of fun!)  Thankfully, we will be at the Children's Hospital & she will be asleep through it all.  We welcome any & all prayers for the Goose, her doctors, nurses & hopefully for some answers too. 

Simplicity

“Mommy, why do we have to go to church?” The Goose inquires from the back seat, out of the middle of nowhere one afternoon. We were not headed to church, so I am not entirely sure what made her think about this… guess we’ll chalk it up to the Spirit.

“Well,” I replied, “we go to church because God wants us to go & learn about Him.”

Good answer! Good answer! I thought, cheering myself on like the fine folks on Family Feud. Until… the next question comes…

“What else does God want us to do?”

“Well…” I said, wondering how deep the theology of a three-year-old is… “God wants us to be nice… &…” OOOO! I’ve got it! “God wants us to love Him & love our neighbor & everybody else!” Whew! Good one… that should sum things up alright.

“Well what else?”

Now really, I just summed it all up for you, the same way Jesus did for those who asked Him back in the day. What more could you want to know? What more is there to say? I can’t explain every detail of how we love God & love the people around us!

Somehow I managed to convince the Goose that really, all God wants us to do is to love Him & other people, which means we need to be nice to everybody, including our Mommy & Daddy, of course! But this little conversation got me thinking…

Jesus told us to love God & love our neighbor, & that’s great… simple enough. He put it all in one easy-to-read sentence. So why do we make it so complicated? We tack on the “what else are we supposed to do”… like loving Him & others isn’t enough. Aren’t we supposed to warm a certain spot in a certain pew at a certain time every week? (It seems some people might think they are predestined to sit in a pre-selected seat on Sunday mornings) Aren’t we supposed to serve on a committee & volunteer somewhere? Aren’t we supposed to pray? The list goes on and on…. & yes, those are all good things, but aren’t all good things a part of loving God & each other? Did we have to make it all so complicated?

I usually like to blame society, technology, etc. for the complication of faith and Christian values, but… it seems people had the same problem thousands of years ago. Paul tells the Corinthians:

“I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 11:3)

I guess we’ve been making things too complicated for longer than we realize. And maybe the fault is not external after all… we are the ones muddying the waters… adding pieces to the puzzle… taking short-cuts that turn out to be detours. Sure, Satan leads us & tempts us, but we are the ones following him through the complicated maze when there is a clear, straight path right in front of our face.

“What else does Jesus want us to do?”… the answer really is simple… just a four letter word… LOVE. That’s it. Love Him. Love others. Simple enough? Maybe simple scares us? We can understand a four-letter-word, right? But it’s the doing of that little L-word that makes us nervous. If all we have to do to follow God is to love each other, well… that’s too easy, right? So if we add on all these other requirements for faithful living, then our task as Christians seems a bit more complex… Then we feel like living out our faith is truly an accomplishment on our part… right? (Sounds a bit like what the Pharisees did to the Old Testament Laws… adding on rules & requirements, turning ten simple commands into countless codes attempting to cover every minute detail of life… ) But just to love… where’s the challenge in that? Even a three-year-old can love! BINGO. Even a three-year-old can love… so why can’t we… JUST Love God & Love His People? That’s the beautiful, wonderful, easy-to-comprehend truth of Christ… Just Love… one SIMPLE command. “But what else?”… nothing Goose. God doesn’t ask us to do anything else, just LOVE. And if we can do that one little thing… well, the rest will simply fall into place.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength [and] You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

(Mark 12:30-31)

Quotes of the Week

A glimpse at our week through the ramblings of a three-year-old...


Goose:  “Can I use my blankie to blow my nose”

Me:  "Why don’t you walk downstairs and get a kleenx?"

Goose: “I don’t need one” as she wipes her nose on her blankie anyway




"When I grow up I want to be a BIG Mommy!"




“yeah, it took me FOREVER to put all that stuff up!”




“I got five pairs of underwear in my bookbag!” Proudly & randomly stated at a birthday party (at least she was telling the truth)





Goose to Me as we sat at the lunch table...
“You can get yourself some chips. And you can get me some chips. I’m not going to get you any chips though. You can get yourself some chips.”




(My Favorite)
Conversation with Daddy while getting a bath.

Goose: “Did we go to church two times today”

Daddy:  "Yep, we sure did. What were we thinking?"

Goose:  “yep, we did go to church two times. That’s crazy. We went once for singing & once for a baby shower. But they are still waiting on the baby to figure out what his name is.”

Broken Toe

So I think I broke my pinky toe… no big deal… it’s not like I can’t walk… it’s just a little sore. Sometimes I forget that it is injured, then I put on shoes or try to sit on my foot (yes, I am one of those weird people who sits on her foot all the time), or a 30 pound toddler steps on my feet (on purpose of course)…. & I remember that it hurts.


But I think my life needs a broken toe. As you might have guessed by now, I seem to learn from random, seemingly insignificant things… like broken toes. We stub our toes all the time, some of us more than others. And we usually ignore the aching appendages… why not? Even doctors tell us there’s nothing you can do. But this tiny swollen toe just won’t be ignored. It keeps aching, reminding me of how just two days ago, I was rushing the Goose along when she stopped suddenly, causing me to stub my little toe on her hard heel. I know, it’s not that good of a story, or is it? I was rushing, hurrying her along, following so close behind that I didn’t even have time to stop, and if I’m honest, didn’t even notice that she stopped.

Rushing. Hurrying. Got to Move-it-move-it. Not paying attention to what’s in front of us… or paying too much attention to what’s in front of our face & not enough to what’s in front of our feet…. And that’s how we stub our toes. It seems I have to learn the same lessons in life over & over & over & over (you get the point) again. God constantly reminds me, in strange & not-so-strange ways, to slow down. To quit rushing through life trying to get every item off my “to do” list & to start putting some things on my list… things that don’t need & shouldn’t be crossed off. This week, I stubbed my toe… next week, I think my internet may mysteriously fail… or maybe my cell phone will spontaneously combust… who knows! But I have this sneaking suspicion that He’s going to keep slowing me down until I learn to slow down myself.

Reminds me of an African proverb I read somewhere… “look not where you fell but where you slipped” Or… “look not at your broken toe, but where & how you stubbed it”

Thank you Full House!

There aren't many moments in life that you are truly thankful for 80s sitcoms, but today I found myself being very thankful for Full House.  (You can thank me later for the theme song now running through your head.)

The Goose was playing so well by herself tonight & being oh-so-sweet (a rarity these days in the land of three-year-old-attitudeville) so... we decided to let her stay up late.  She likes to play with her babies on the steps... sometimes they are beds, sometimes they are trampolines... but as you will recall, her imagination has exploded, so who knows what the steps were tonight.

Then... suddenly, from the peaceful playing Goose not eight feet away I hear...
 "MOMMY MOMMY AAHHHH!!!!"  With a desperation of voice no italics can relay.  I leap from my chair, run (the whole 8 feet) to the steps wondering what on earth could have happened to her from the third step... with no sharp objects... no noise... & no warning...  Then I see it... her head... stuck between the railing. 

Now I know... a good mother should NOT burst into laughter at her child's trauma, but... I couldn't help it!   (And even as I type, I still cannot stop laughing).  Nor could I help the words that just poured from my mouth, without heistation & with not a bit of worry in my mind, I knew just what to do...
"It's ok.  Just calm down.  Thanks to Full House I know just what to do.  Daddy will get the saw, take that railing off & you're head will be free in no time!"

That's right... thanks to those silly sisters, I had no fear... no need to panic... no need to try butter or ice... no pushing, no pulling... I knew what to do.

As luck would have it, Daddy didn't need that saw afterall.  Just the thought of it made the Goose's head pop right back out.  And if you are wondering what prompted this little incident... Evidentally, Pretty Baby had taken a tumble & instead of climbing down the three steps to check on said baby, The Goose decided she would take a short-cut.  (Is it bad that I wish I had my camera sitting right there?)  Oh well!  All's well that ends well.  BUT... "Whatever happened to predictabilty..."