Mary de Muth on the purpose, pain and point of suffering

This should probably be put elsewhere...but my link to Mary de Muth is on this page, so just wanted to link to a great piece she has written on suffering, not living the perfect life, and some thoughts on what it is all about. Just brilliant.

Duck psychology

Mama duck took off and left a couple of weeks ago. She’d been going away on trips, getting the ducklings used to being alone and more independent. (They weren’t, of course. Still kept begging for bread and annoying the rabbit.) Still, they look like ducks now. Big. Fat. And, mostly, winged.  They are trying frantically to fly, propelling themselves out of the pond before collapsing beak first onto the grass.  Much flapping of wings but no lift-off – as yet.

Today, Mama returned – with 7 tiny ducklings. They look as if they’ve just crept out of their eggshells, tiny balls of fur stumbling around.

The original 4 are REALLY annoyed. The look of disdain on their faces said it all, so we thought, until Boss Duck (aka Apple) had a go at the ducklings. Mama didn’t react much, apart from poking her beak at Boss. No dramatics, fights or other tantrums.

I wish I understood duck psychology.

Now they’re all hunkered down within a few feet of each other:


4 adolescents, 1 adult, 7 miniature ducklings and 1 rabbit.  Sounds almost like the chorus of Tom Lehrer’s hunting song.

Gentle encouragement: Approaching God

I’ve known Lisa Borden for over a quarter of a century.  I know, it sounds old. We’re not really. Well, not that much.  Lisa was a really young bride when I first met her. Now you know how old she and I are, middle-aged in years, young at heart, and spiritually – well, Lisa was always the mature one of the two of us.  This friendship – just one of the many Lisa manages to sustain so thoughtfully – has nourished me beyond words.

I was reflecting recently on how gentle Lisa was, all those years ago when we met with our husbands to study the Bible together. She was so patient with this young Christian who really didn’t know much about the Bible at all and certainly not how to live a like a Christian.

Lisa taught – and continues to teach - me a great deal. Back then she taught me, without many words, just by her kind nature and her lifestyle. And now she teaches many others with her words too. Beautiful words, thoughtful words, insightful words.  In her book,  Approaching God.

Now I know a little more than I did then.  I know the Bible better. I have some idea of how to live like a Christian. Sometimes, I feel I actually achieve it for a moment or two.  And sometimes, I can pass on a little of what I learned from Lisa.

So I’m ordering another copy of her book to give to a friend. A friend who longs to know and serve God better. A friend who, through Lisa’s book, will discover God as father, mother, artist, healer, guide...not just head knowledge of God, but discovering God personally. Because Lisa opens up the way to God through metaphor and imagery, in poetry and prose, in pictures and gentle questioning.

This is a bedside book, a being beside me book, a carefully bagged handbag book, a desktop sojourner book. A dip-in, dive-in, delight-in book.

Approaching God.

Family catch up

I have realised that most of my news recently has been about ducks. Well, they are very entertaining...I love looking out of the window to see the ducks staring back at me, demanding food, while the rabbit snoozes in the grass and a mallard and his bride nestle in the flowerbed...well, the last isn't too great as I survey the flattened flowers. Oh well.

Yet there is considerably more in my life than ducks. School, for one.  Lots of paper work - reports, reviews, reorganisation, replanning...even redistributing the contents of my classroom cupboard (I can now see the floor - hallelujah!).

Church, for another. Thinking about dear friends who have been spiritual mentors for years (I cried when they told me they were moving back to Africa - and, at the time, they weren't even living in the same country as us! It was just that Europe seemed so much closer...), I realised that, unbelievably, I now - in a small, small, way - mentor others. How did that happen? (Not sure.)  And what do I know? (Not much.)
At the same time, friendship groups are tightening, growing, including others more and more...New Wine a few weeks ago was a wonderful shared experience.

Socially - well, lots of coffees and dinners, barbecues, bike rides and kayaking...wonderful to have light mornings and long evenings. Summer.

As for Jonny and Cat: well, both are nearing the end of their intern years. Cat blogs a little, Jonny is still serving at Proclaimers church in Norwich.  Both face changes and challenges.

Last month brought visits from old and dear friends, all a wonderful encouragement. Sometimes I even remember to ring friends for a chat and catch up. Still more visits planned for the summer.

And there is always reading: latterly, Tim Keller's The Prodigal God; Becky Manley Pippert's Out of the Saltshaker; and John Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be. Much food for thought.

Ducks growing up

 The ducks are an endless source of amusement. They now mob us whenever we set foot outside the house. When inside, they lurk under windows, or tap on the glass of the conservatory door with their beaks.

These permanent residents needed names. Apple, orange, peach and plum. Yum.

Education

No time to write much recently - one of those times, as Fiona Castle said when she spoke at a ladies' breakfast I went to on Saturday, when I seemed to be having little bits of me broken off in all directions. Not bad, just busy.

But my friend Martyn found this clip about education. I'm fascinated as much by the way it is presented, as what it says...So I've archived it here!  Here is the link to other talks...

Ducks, and how they live.

With friend...previously, Mama Duck would chase him away. One time he fell in the pond...

Beginning to fledge...

The ducks are becoming more amusing by the day. They demand food, rushing up whenever we appear - whether outside or even near a window. They dog - or is that 'duck' - my very footsteps, following so closely at my heels that I dare not make any impulsive movement lest I tread on them. Like the baby birds they are, they start screaming for feed, imperatively demanding: cheeping and chirruping, apart from one, the largest, whose plumage is beginning to darken and change colour - along with his voice. It must be somewhat disconcerting to discover that your cheep now resembles a quack.

So the four musketeers spend their days huddled in a group, or rushing across the lawn, or in frantic activity in the pond: ducking and diving, or skeetering across the surface as they chase insects.

They spend their days making me smile.