bits of sunshine

sunday coffee series

july 17:

. enjoying 78 degrees this morning and watering my flowers before we creep up to 105 or so this afternoon . it should be a perfect day to enjoy an afternoon movie .
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. oh summertime, there is so much i love about you . ☀️🌊🌻☕️🌾🍧✨
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#sundaycoffeeseries with connie  // mug from ben for an anniversary eight or so years ago 🥰

 

july 24:

coming to you from Miles City Interagency Dispatch Center
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from the Aircraft desk
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mug was a gift from ben, purchased at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, AZ
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#sundaycoffeeseries with connie  // #wildlandfirewife #wildlandfiredispatch 
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weather - sunny - 71 degrees F - 53% humidity - it’s going to head towards 90 degrees and 20% humidity as the day wears on

 

july 31:

. enjoying 76 degrees this morning and planning to water my flowers before it gets hotter . last day of july - and i’m not sure what i think about this .
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. i started a book by madeleine l’engle yesterday - and read until way too late last night (early this morning?) .
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. oh summertime, there is so much i love about you . ☀️📖🌳🌳☕️🌻🍧✨
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#sundaycoffeeseries with connie // mug created by arne ceramics in flagstaff, az / gifted to me by stef and simon // at home in front of number six-twelve

sunday coffee and words

Numbers 20 - Miriam dies
and the well dries up
the people complain - they are thirsty and afraid
God tells Moses to take his staff
          assemble all the poeple
          and SPEAK to the rock
          tell the rock to yeild water

But Moses - once again - doesn't trust that words will work
back in Exodus chapters 3 and 4 (3:11 and 13 and 4:1, 10, and 13)
Moses told God five times
that he (Moses) wouldn't know how to talk to Pharaoh,
that he couldn't do it,
that no one would listen to his voice, his words.

God continues to tell Moses that He (God) will provide the words
and He asks Moses, out of exasperation, I think,
"Who has made man's mouth?
Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind?
Is it not I, the LORD?
Now go!
And I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

But Moses asks yet again, "Please send someone else."
Moses does not believe that the words God gives will be enough.
Spoken words enough to free a people?
Spoken words enough to create water in a desert?
Words spoken to Pharaoh will have power?
Words spoken to a rock - an unyeilding force - will produce what is demanded?
What power could words have?
Moses does not trust that God will honor His own words
          "tell the rock"
or that God will honor the words that Moses speaks. 

This whole existence is a story of words.
God created the whole world with words - by the WORD - remember?
"Let there be light."
And there was light.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
All things were made through the Word.
In Him was life - life that is the light of humankind.
(Genesis 1:3 and John 1:1-4)

God made covenant with the ancestors of Jesus and people of ancient days with words. He made shifts in their names that changed their destinies. 

"Words are events, they do things, change things." (Ursala K. Guin)

If you lose faith in words, you lose power and your future changes.
Moses lost faith in words and his future changed.
When Moses continued to doubt the words of God,
the words of God's promises did not carry Moses to the fertile promised land;
Moses did not speak the words God offered to supply,
and he lived out his life in the barren desert. 

I don't want to discount the power of words. I want to take care with God's Words. I want to trust His Words.

I want to speak truth and life and living water with my words.

What promised lands may be opened or closed to me and to others because of what words I believe and what words I speak?

Moses did not speak to Pharoah as God would have empowered him to do.
Moses did not speak to the rock as God would have empowered him to do.
He missed opportunities to use the power of language. 

May we be blessed with the clarity we need to chose powerful words.
May we build a safer and stronger and more righteous world
for ourselves and those around us
with life-giving, life-affirming, intentional words. 

May we have the faith to speak to what seems immovable,
and may we have the joy of watching life-giving water gush forth from the Rock
by the power of our words. 

May it be so.
          Amen. 

 

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and a nod to Jericho Vincent {@thealef on instagram}, for the thought-provoking series "The World's Oldest Bookclub" 

Bookstack

Stacks of Kindnesses - by Lori Hetteen  - her third tiny book of seventeen syllable poetry. It is amazing what one can say in only seventeen syllables. You can see all three in my stories, and I highly recommend them all. 📚 

 

The Voices We Carry - by J.S. Park - I found J.S. on Instagram and have appreciated his voice so much. This book is his writing about all the voices inside of us - our own and others’ - that fight and clamor and make us who we are. I opened the book to page 121 and read, “[the voices] are trying to heal something that wiggles underneath the surface of our guts, something that’s pulsing and writhing down there. We exalt ourselves to avoid it. We condemn ourselves to prevent it. We exalt others to deflect it. We condemn others to fix it.” And a free pages later, “Intersecting with the cross, there’s this gift of resurrection, an invitation into restored life for a heart as flawed and fatal as mine, and it shows me that God is in the business of breathing life into busted places.” I am looking forward to reading all of it! 

 

The Alchemist - by Paul Coelho - a kindred spirit recommended this book to me and I have read it once and plan to read it again, pencil in hand, and underline and digest many passages. “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.” “If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better.” “We are afraid of losing what we have: life, possessions, health, property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world are written by the same hand.”

 

Pilgrim - by David White - a collection of poetry by an author Ben appreciates. Sometimes Ben sends me a poem to savor. I thought that I would purchase this book for him. The poem titled “Fifty” is truly beautiful. 

 

Seven Aunts - by Staci Lola Drouillard - was gifted to me by the University of Minnesota press to read and review. I am on page 33 and am captivated. “Each woman’s story is vital to tell - not because they were famous astronauts, inventors, politicians, or war heroes, but because they had the courage to live in this world at all. And that, for me, is enough.” This book is real stories about women who matter a lot. As do we all. The ordinary is amazing and necessary and beautiful. 

 

Call Us What We Carry - by Amanda Gorman - ever since hearing Amanda’s inaugural poem and her recitation, I knew I would buy collections of her poetry. “Children understand / Even grime is a gift, / Even what is mired is miraculous, / What is marred is still marvelous.” “ Words matter, for / language is an ark. / Yes, / Language is an art, / An articulate artifact. / Language is a life craft. / Yes, / Language is a life raft.”