Wednesday Witterings . . .

 

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 I had to pop over to one of the local grocery stores yesterday afternoon to pick up some bin bags. We have two grocery stores in town.  Usually I shop at the Independant, but occasionally I will go to the other one and pick up the specials when I need what is on offer. They had their own store brand bin bags on offer this week and so I went there.

There is this cashier in The Foodland that is such a bundle of energy. She always makes me smile.  She is bright and engaging and so friendly and kind and loving, yes . . .  loving to everyone who goes through her till. She always makes you feel like you are the most important person in the world to her at that moment. I love going through her till.  

I don't know what her name is or anything else, but I know how she makes me feel, and probably how she makes everyone she comes into contact feel.  Special. Seen. Important. Like I matter.

I have been going through the cash before in shops and felt like I was putting the person out by making them do their job. Like they wanted to be anywhere else on the planet than checking out my groceries. Like I was a big pain in the patootie and a source of frustration. You just know this is a person who hates their job and as a consequence of those feelings, you are low on their list as well.

What a wonderful talent this girl has, to make others feel special and like they matter. You come away from her feeling like a million bucks. I want to be like her. We should all be like her.

Can you imagine a world filled with people who "see" you and validate your worth? What a different world it would be!

 

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I got home and puttered a bit. Killed some more ants. Then I went to the mailbox to post a letter and check my mail. I had nothing, but at least it got me out there walking. Sheila was on her deck talking to Millie.  Millie used to live in my place but moved over one street to the fancier places.  Millie knew both my mother and my father.  Guess what they were talking about?

Ants.

They are both having problems with them as well. I think that's because it has been really dry this year. Usually the landlord has someone come around and spray for them. Nobody has been around this year, not yet anyways. Here's hoping.  I had ants in my kitchen yesterday and in my bedroom, crawling up my nightstand. You can imagine how creepy that made me feel.

The cats are quite curious about them in a very nonchalant way.  They just lay there and watch them, tilting their heads back and forth, giving them the occasional tap with a paw. I don't think they find them to be very exciting.

 

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There is a huge rut the end of our road, about six feet down from the stop sign. Its about 2 feet wide, runs the whole width of the road, and is now a good 3 or 4 inches deep. It is hard on the car driving over it. Its from where they were working on it about two weeks ago. The people on the next road over had lost their streetlights.  The maintenance man said due to somebody shoveling so for some reason they dug up all along the grass from that street to this one and the width of our road, I suppose to hook up those lights to our lights.

I hope they come and fill it in soon, even if it is only with gravel.  With all the rain it keeps getting deeper and deeper.  Its an unfinished job. I was always taught that when you started a job you needed to also finish it.  That is the hardest part of any job, the finishing. I often struggle to finish things, and need to make myself do it.  I think that is the ADHD in me.  My brain is always skipping forward to the next thing.

This morning I am enjoying a bowl of Scottish porridge for my breakfast.  I cooked it in  milk and have drizzled it with some golden syrup for a real treat.  It takes me back to the trip I took to Scotland a few years back. We stayed in a hotel in the Trossachs National Park. Every morning we were treated to a nice bowl of porridge, along with other choices.  

There is something very comforting to be found in a bowl of porridge. It is something I have come to really enjoy as an adult. When I was a child I could never understand the appeal. To me, back then  . . .  it held about as much appeal as eating a bowl of wall paper paste. My mother could never get any of us to eat it.

My ex husband's mother ate a bowl of it every morning and she is 96 and going strong.

It is not something I have every morning, but every now and then I fancy a bowl of porridge, always made with milk and always enjoyed with some syrup on top.  Golden, Maple, etc. Not a lot, but just a touch so that you know it is there. Date syrup, if you can get it, is especially good.

 

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Canada is on fire.  There are wild fires burning in just about every province.  It is a huge problem.  The air quality in Ottawa where my brother lives is very poor. Thankfully all the rain we have had here in Nova Scotia has helped to control them a bit and some people have been allowed back into their homes and communities, but it could spring back up at any time. We need to be vigilant. 

This is the worst year for fires on record and they are saying it is going to be an ongoing problem right on into the month of August. Another sign of Global warming?  Perhaps. The impact on our wildlife is going to be catastrophic.

 

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Listen and attend with the ear of your heart.

~Saint Benedict

How often do we allow ourselves to slow down and listen to life with the ear of our heart.  The opposite of silence.  We may think we are surrounded by silence, but there is a cacophony of  sound which attends our every moment.  At  times the silence can be quite deafening. 

Right now I can hear the refrigerator humming, the keys on my keyboard tapping, there is a slight ringing in my ears (there always is), the dull roar of the odd car that travels down the main road near my street.  Cinnamon's little cries, she wants treats. The sounds of silence.

 

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If there is paradise on the face of the earth,

It is this, oh! It is this, oh! It is this.

These last few years I have been on a journey. The journey of discovering the Divine in the ordinary. We often think that we can only find something so special as the Divine by going to places like church or synagogue, great cathedrals, temple  . . . 

I believe the Divine surrounds us. I have determined to make my home a place of refuge, quiet, and comfort.  A place where I can experience the Divine on a daily and ongoing basis. The things I choose to allow in my life, the art on my walls, the books I choose to read, the places I choose to visit when I am online, the conversations I choose to have, the things I choose to watch or the music I listen to.  

There is a great blessing that can come from losing everything if you allow it to take hold. Unfettered by the flotsam gathered by years and years of life, you have the gift of being able to consciously choose exactly what you wish to invite into your life. This is a great luxury and a blessing in disguise.

First you have to let go of the things you held on to, and that is a very painful process, but once you have done that, there comes a freedom, opportunity. Life takes on a new meaning, and I would never have thought it to be so.

The choice to walk away from everything was probably the single most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my life. But I have found paradise in the process.  I have been able to see the hand of God moving in my life in unimaginable ways. Ways I would never have experienced or been able to see otherwise.  And I am so grateful for that.

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8

 

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Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
I'll praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above

(listen here)

I just wanted to share this beautiful arrangement of this hymn this  morning. It is so heart warming.  I often listen to hymns, and each Sunday I take note of the hymns we have sung in church and go over them again later in the quiet of my home and ponder the words.  Some of the most meaningful testimony meetings we have had at church have been where people share their favorite hymns and why they are their favorites,  and then we all sing the first verse.  I have a hard time picking a favorite. Most of them speak to my heart in a special way.

That is my heaven.

And with that I will leave you with a thought to carry with you for the day  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *.˛.°Who hears music,

feels his solitude peopled at once.

~Robert Browning  •。★★ 。* 。

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Instant Pot Pot Roast. Yesterday I cooked my traditional pot roast in my Instant Pot. It took a fraction of the time and was so delicious! I really enjoyed this a lot!

I hope that you have a lovely day!  Cindy and I are meeting Dad and Hazel at the Chinese restaurant tonight for a change. I am looking forward to it!  Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

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And I do too!