To do

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13 MSG

I just love this.

It's the answer, isn't it? To all the striving and arguing over what Christianity ought to look like. I think it must make our Father especially weary when we tell each other what to do instead of worrying about the logs in our own eyes first.

Trust steadily in God.

Hope unswervingly.

Love extravagantly.

It's what we can focus on when the world seems entirely upside down. When we're in the middle of a pandemic. When all around us are filled with fear. When the horrors of war rage on. When a contractor rips us off and we live in a construction site for years. When illness settles in. This is our permanent to-do list.

I feel like I'm pretty good at trusting in God. Am determined to love extravagantly. But I struggle to hope unswervingly. 

This is why I need to read other writers, listen to other speakers, talk with my brothers and sisters. What I lack, you kindle in me. Where I falter, you hold me up.

You point me to hope.

To trust.

To love.

And to wake up tomorrow and do it again.

Xo.

Wild Geese that Fly with the Moon on the Wing

Tonight I was walking Eevee and the sky was a delight. Sparkling and flooded with light from a full moon, Orion swathed in a sash of jet smoke, the big dipper scooping up some distant magic.

Wild geese were honking their noisy reunions, wings awhirr as they swooped in to land on the half-melted river. Walking over the bridge, I could see them from above with the moon on the wing, and I felt a little heart leap of understanding just why Maria called it one of her favourite things.

 Just when we had almost reached home, a new sound hit my ears - the silvery trumpet of swans. Eevee and I ran down to the water in hopes of seeing them but they weren't in sight - maybe they had only flown over or maybe they had landed around the bend.

I tried to capture the night with my camera but no luck. It was oxygen just to be out in it, free, with birds coming home at the cusp of spring.

I'm not a dog person

I'm not a dog person at all. 

I think all dogs are just too ... doggish.  They shed and eat stinky food and drool and poop and bark and whine and - I mean, they just exist, doggily. 

You can see it's not dogs' fault - they're just not my cup of tea.

But our kids are dog people, and we're trying to raise them to be compassionate, so when our friend found a little puppy abandoned in a cardboard box on the side of the highway, in the rain ... weellllllllll ... we said yes and adopted Eevee. 

I have reluctantly come to the realization that I enjoy walking her every night.

I have reluctantly come to the realization that I enjoy her ecstatic morning snuggles (even though they give me hives - ugh - yes, hives). 

And last week, we discovered a cut in the bottom of her right front food pad. It looked like maybe a split from walking on too much salt. We kept her walking to a minimum for a few days, and for a week I've been rubbing coconut oil on it to clean it and help it heal quickly. And she loves this. She licks all over my hands (yummy), and when I'm done she stretches out her toes like they're finally comfortable, exactly the way I stretch after I rub lotion on my feet before bed.

And I have reluctantly come to the realization that I enjoy taking care of her. I look forward to rubbing the oil on her dry foot pads and seeing her relief.

Reluctant because I don't really want another body to take care of (we already have a lot of those). Reluctant because I don't want more chores in the day (we already have a lot of those). Reluctant because of my allergies (I already have a lot of those).

And yet ... I love knowing she's more comfortable, or more happy, or more safe, because of something I can do. And the more I take care of her, the more I love her. The more I do for her, the more I care about her. 

There's alchemy in the world yet.

I'm not a dog person - but -

Foodcycler Diary

We signed up to be part of a countertop composter pilot project in our town. 

We purchased a Foodcycler at a very reduced price in exchange for keeping a 12-week record of our usage. This will help the town calculate the overall waste reduction that could be had, and the impact it could have on garbage pickup, methane gas release, and landfill use.

We were so excited to receive our Foodcycler and start composting! In the first day we ran 3 cycles. I knew it was coming, so I had kept a few containers of food in the fridge that I normally would have scraped into the trash. We also have a big family, so I expected our usage to be higher than the predicted once-daily cycle.

We eagerly loaded it up and took a picture and then read the instructions lol - it was too full and we had to dump a bunch of the food scraps out and save them for the next load. 

We're saving the resultant compost and will add it to our soil once the snow melts. It is very cool to see the different type of dirt that is created by the different food scraps.

So far I think we have composted the following kitchen scraps:

Lettuce

Peppers

Coffee grounds

Apples

A lime

Orange peels

Banana peels

Leftover chicken

A few pierogies

1 napkin

Grape stems

Egg shells

A few bread crusts

Dry dog food

There is a filter that absorbs odours, and I didn't notice any food smells during the processing except for the dog food when there was a significant amount of it in the foodcycler. I won't put that in the machine again simply because of the smell.

Our container of dirte (*not your ordinary dirt lol) is rapidly filling up! This is the compost produced from 5 buckets full of kitchen scraps.

 

You can see the lime peel and orange peel in this shot. They're thin and crisp but still have their citrusy scents.

Anyway, I know this is probably exciting only to me, but I wanted to have a record of it for my own interest :).  Our Foodcycler is happily humming away on its third bucket of the day.