Category: Inspiration

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Family Farming

Lord, what would You have me do?

What do you want to do?

I pause, open my eyes wider, lean back. What comes to mind is need-to-do. Laundry, vacuum, errands, bills. All of that can, and will, likely happen today. Then I look at my unread issue of Outdoor Photographer. I think about the third installment of the ice and snow blog. My pen runs out of ink as I feel out of time…coincidental? I think not.

 I have a supply of new pens in the coffee table drawer and I get one out. I am startled by its deep, dark, fresh-flowing black ink. I didn’t realize how faded the old pen had become.

You have a fresh 24 hours. But you are living your days like your ink pen, in a sort of grey haze. You aren’t allowing the richness and vibrancy to come through. You edit and mute and dim down your life, your inner life, all the time. It leaks out, here on the Page, and in occasional conversations with those you trust. It shows in your smiles and kindnesses to strangers.

Ok, so, what would You have me do? I don’t want to be one of those pushy, unapproachable people, obnoxiously telling others what to do or how to be.

Do you think that’s what I mean by Shine?

I don’t see the 3rd way. There’s the quieter life, the life of kindness. And the quieter interior life, I’ll call it. There’s the loud life, the TV-preacher in-your-face life. And no, I don’t think You are calling me to that.

Imagine a farmer. He plants and reaps and feeds his family. Maybe his neighbors. Imagine a Mega-Farm, the whole operation like a machine, like a food factory. Now, can’t you imagine a 3rd way?

I guess the farmer could, if he had help, buy the farm next door. Feed double.

What if the farmer invented an entirely new way to sow, or reap, or irrigate? What if the farmer stumbled on a strain of grain that had a higher yield for the same acreage? What if the farmer shared his discoveries, his inventions, his insights, and in less than a generation, quietly and faithfully revolutionized “family farming?” The tractor completely changed farming after generations of plowing by hand.

Ok, yes, I see that. But what does that have to do with me, with my life? Gallery owner, sometime photographer, occasional writer—of work that for the most part lives here, on these pages, or in notebooks or folders in drawers.

If you could pass on one thing, if you could give every family member one gift, if you could give one thing to every friend, what would it be?

My mind races through ideas. I already know where I’ll end up. I don’t choose a winning lottery ticket or a paid-off house. I don’t even choose robust physical health, tempting as that choice is. I choose You. I choose a deep, personal connection to You. Because all those other things, anything I can think of, fades. But You…You are the One Who Shines, Lord. Who is steady and true and Always Is. I’d somehow give them You.

 So, how do I feed the world You?

One day at a time, one meal at a time. No matter how big the farm, or how great the yield, there is only today’s meal, in the Now, that can be provided and have an effect in real time. The rest is just theory, and commodities. What sustains is meeting the hunger, right now. You just keep doing what you are doing, and let Me multiply your reach—like the loaves and fishes.

Multiply reach?

Ah, you see. You’re smiling now. Good. Now scoot along. You need to eat your own breakfast and live your own fresh day. And look for some glad surprises. It is My delight to delight you. You don’t have to be so serious. Enjoy your life. Enjoy the adventure of it. I don’t give stale bread, dry bread, moldy bread, or crumbs. I give fresh, hearty, tasty, nourishing bread—one bite, one day of your life, at a time.

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Stale

Yesterday we talked about nourishment, about food that nourishes us versus food that doesn’t. What about stale? What about good food gone stale?

How does good food go stale? When you don’t eat it fresh. When you put it aside, when you don’t eat it all, or when you make other less-nourishing choices. Life goes stale the same way. The other reason food can go stale or spoil is when you have “too much on your plate,” when you can’t possibly take it all in. That is where you’ve been, with too much to absorb, too much to think about. The body has a way of adjusting to too much pressure and this is how your body is reacting now, wanting sleep and rest and quiet so that it can recover and regroup.  You’ve been trying to fix a long-term issue with a short-term solution–caffeine and sugar–that is actually making you feel worse. And those worse effects are cumulative. You ate healthy all day yesterday and you rested better last night. Try all that again today and assess how you feel tomorrow. That will help your body.

Now for your spirit and your soul. Your spirit has been managing by coming to the Page, by trying to keep fresh and real here, but your emotional self, that is another matter entirely. You haven’t really let yourself feel the pain of losing Mikey, or the upset of both getting and then letting go of the puppy, or the shock of hearing Pete say to you, I can’t get up. You need to let Me comfort you, and hear Me affirm your wisdom in the impulses you had and the choices you made about the puppy, and receive My strength for the days ahead with Pete.

God, don’t I do all that here? At the Page?

No, little one. You do all that outside. Here, you are very conscious of time, your allotment of minutes, and you are often interrupted, which means you can’t allow yourself to open emotionally at the depth you need to, right now. You are afraid of a flood of tears or a volcano of anger, erupting from within you. So you keep to the surface, trying hard to maintain both connection to Me and an outward composure in the world. Meanwhile, much festers and goes unhealed and unresolved deep inside you. So come, meet Me outside again. I know what your schedule is like, through the holidays. But very soon you will have a chance, and when you do, take it! And come prepared to receive.

 

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Dancing Butterflies

Lord, I knew this new puppy would be exhausting. Thank You, by the way, for the extra hours of sleep last night. I am so grateful for some rest. What I did not anticipate and I don’t know how to handle is that the schedule is making it much harder to have my time in the morning with You. The past few days it has been impossible. Right now it is nearly 6 pm and I am snatching minutes before supper to sit, and think, and talk to You, and feel.

And what do you feel?

Honestly, it wasn’t a bad day. But You said to keep connected to You, and how am I supposed to do that, when I don’t have a regular, concentrated time to journal and to listen?

What did you do this afternoon?

Ran the errands I needed to run. Took Pete to the bank, we stopped at Yellowhouse, came home, put the puppy pen together outside.

Besides all that?

I took a few minutes and photographed the monarch butterflies on my lantana bush.

You noticed them. And you took some time to watch them and then to photograph them.

Yes.

Do you remember the verse that says, whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me?

Yes, of course.

You treat yourself in your own thinking as less than the least of these. You contributed charitably, you helped your friend get his car, you finished up the long refi at the bank, you did business tasks at home before that and after that…and in the middle of all that, you gave your attention to honor these winged flights of beauty–and you felt guilty for those few minutes. Didn’t you? Isn’t that why you laid your camera down and moved on to another task? All those errands and chores you did to help anyone else, they count for something in your thinking, in your assessment of your day. But taking time to count butterflies? Not so much. Yet those few minutes were actually minutes of serenity and calm for you. And although you were not uttering prayers, you were actually praying the whole time. You were living moments in deliberate honor and gratitude and you were noticing the beauty of your world.

Lord, it was amazing! There were monarchs and painted ladies and I don’t know who all, on that one bush!

There is more than one way to set a bush ablaze. With Moses I chose fire. Today with you, I chose wings the color of flame. Drink beauty like water. That is one more way to stay connected to all that is, and to Me, as the Source and Creator of all that is. I Am glad you enjoyed the dance of the butterflies. You could not hear them, but angels were making the music they could hear and all to refresh you. Now, let me ask you one more question. How do you feel right now?

Relaxed. Refreshed. Grateful. And somehow leaning on You. And You are smiling.

Yes, yes I Am.

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In the Moment

Being creative takes time. Shucks, even coming here to the page takes time. It gets harder, not easier. I feel I’m straining and rushing. My phone keeps dinging. Distractions. Sorry.

Eve, this is your life. You don’t have great swathes of time. But, please, listen. Neither does anyone else. No one in your field of impact does. That is exactly what makes you—and your work—so impactful, so special. You don’t have weeks and months to write in. You have moments. You don’t have days on end to photograph: you have moments. You don’t have weeks to retreat to put together an album: you have moments. You find Me in the Moments, in the In-Betweens. That is your life and that is your impact. That is your calling: to live a full-on connected life in the midst. Moments in the Midst, the photographer’s way, the writer’s way, the composer’s way. That’s it. That is the “it” you have found so elusive. You have thought you had to wait—to publish, to write polished essays and stories and lyrics, to create a photo book—until you could carve out great expanses of time. But your strength is in the moment. Spontaneity is your strength. Call, and having wildlife respond, is your strength.

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Creative Inspiration

If Your mercies are new every morning, are there words for each day? Fresh bread, every morning? I have been—again—reluctant to “wish.” What if I wish amiss?

 

Think of wishes like this. Imagine for a minute you had a patron, one with unlimited resources, not only of funds, but of Time. Of energy and health. With the contacts to open easily any door of opportunity. Imagine that patron just met with a shy but very gifted pianist and that together they talked music, talked about a small outdoor concert and an open-air innovative recording studio to combine nature’s music—as it occurred in real time—with the piano. The pianist leaves inspired and encouraged to make the music Heaven always intended that she make. Your eyes meet; hers are shining.

Now it’s your turn. And others will come talk to Me after you do. And you will return—later today, tomorrow, the next day—and together we will refine and shape and polish and fulfill and add to and create new. And so will I with all these others. So tell Me, your Patron: what do you dream?

Do you have a story for me? For me to tell, I mean?

I do. I have many more stories for you.

You do?

See, you’re smiling. Your eyes are shining. You’re letting yourself imagine, a little. I want you to imagine a lot. This is how our partnership works. I inspire—then you, with My help, synthesize and bring into form. Then you share with the larger world.

You have forgotten a middle crucial step in breathing. You breathe in. Then, that oxygen—and spiritually, My Spirit—fills every part of your body, your life. It energizes, enriches, enables movement. Then, you breathe out—you release that oxygen, that inspiration, now transformed and in a form that blesses others, just as carbon dioxide enriches the trees and plants. See how connected it all is? Let the oxygen fill you first.