Retro Blog

My neighbour Mary Ann is keen to meet her neighbours and would like us to become more community minded. She came over last week and we had a long conversation about global warming and peak oil. She read the book by Barbara Kingsolver which has prompted her angst. Mary Ann is a bit of an activist and has decided to provoke her neighbours into action, not just talk.

She would love to set up a vege garden for the college community - particularly for faculty families. I told her that the gardener at St Paul's has a vege garden behind John Chapman house. Apparently, he has agreed to let us build a vege garden there.

Yesterday as I walked past her place, I saw that she had pegged a message to her neighbours onto her front fence encouraging people to respond. She had left a pile of paper scraps and pegs for people to contribute. There were a number of messages pegged up by passers by. Mary Ann lives on King Street, so there are people walking past constantly. I enjoyed reading the messages and added one of my own. This morning, I noticed that someone had referred to this as a retro blog.

God is our Refuge

Sarah's Postcards, originally uploaded by sarahkeithcondie.

I shared these verses with Susannah this morning. She is in the midst of her HSC trials and was unable to sit her french exam yesterday as she was too sick. She will sit it tomorrow. Today she is feeling much better.

It is my prayer that she continues to trust our great God.

Poppies

Proof for Summer, originally uploaded by *clairity*.

Poppies are one of my favourite flowers. My husband sometimes buys me a bunch of "pods" and we watch them turn into a magnificent bunch of flowers before our eyes. You can almost hear them pop as they burst out - expressing their individuality.

We walked in meadows filled with poppies in Kyrgyzstan during June.

Remembering Lyn

This morning I read the article in the Good Weekend about Chris O'Brien's fight with brain cancer. What an amazing man and what energy, passion and devotion he has to caring for people with cancer. About six weeks after Chris was diagnosed with this cancer my friend Rhonda's cousin Lyn was diagnosed with the same type of cancer.

Rhonda's family is Lebanese, so to know Rhonda means you get to know all her family, so I have gotten to know Lyn over the last seventeen years. Rhonda's husband Phil and Rhonda were with Lyn when she passed out suddenly in "the Shop", the family business and were able to revive her. It was just after Christmas and they were not in Sydney. After being rushed to the local hospital and a CT scan, where the cancer showed its ugly head, Rhonda accompanied Lyn to Sydney.

It was the start of a nightmare of tests, surgery, chemo and radiotherapy and waiting for results. Lyn faced this sudden tragedy with much dignity and a deep trust in her God. She was cared for by a large extended family who were prepared to do anything for her and walked with her.

Lyn returned home in late February with her Mum to try to return to her life, however she could. Last week, Lyn's fight ended and she died very peacefully, with most of her family around her bedside. Rhonda rang me with this news a few hours later. At church the week before, she had told me that Lyn had been taken into hospital and wouldn't be going home.

A few months ago I was going through one of my black holes that consists of boxes of disorganised photographs from the last twenty years. I was attempting to create order out of chaos when I found a photo of Lyn with my children and Rhonda's children from a number of years ago. it captures an essence of Lyn - she loved all people and loved getting to know people - both big and small, so she would take time to chat to children and adults alike. Lyn was playing a game with the children and they were all having fun. Thee was much laughter and frivolity. She was incredibly cheerful and fun to be around - she enjoyed her life: her work in the family business, her visits to Sydney to buy clothes - she had such good taste in clothes and a fantastic eye for colour which she shares with Rhonda. She would put colours together that just seemed to work.

Rhonda started making patchwork quilts a few years ago. After a trip to New Zealand she bought a collection of fabrics to make something to remind her and her family of their family holiday. They sat in her cupboard for a year until I visited one day and she got them out to show me again. I lent her a book of ideas and instantly she was inspired and set to work. Lyn must have been visiting around this time, as she got inspired too to learn all about patchwork. She also had some New Zealand fabrics, she bought herself a machine and started work - she chose a design of a square in a square - simple but effective.

Rhonda completed her quilt very quickly and then made a second with the scraps left over - both are exquisite and show Rhonda's clever use of colour. I often asked how Lyn's quilt was going, but her progress was much slower. In hindsight, Rhonda wonders whether her tumour affected her ability to sew which went unnoticed.

One of Lyn's friends finished piecing her quilt and then quilted it earlier this year. Many of Lyn's friends and family signed the back of the quilt which she was able to enjoy these last few weeks. Rhonda told me that it was spectacular in its simplicity and use of colour. They were going to place the quilt over Lyn's coffin. Lyn has left us with far more than just this quilt. Her friends and family have many memories of a woman who "feared the Lord", who cared for many people in her church and local community and brought colour into their lives with her cheerfulness, her passion and enthusiasm for life.

Sweet Potato Soup

Yesterday I bought sweet potatoes because they were cheap and made soup with them. I couldn't find a recipe, so I made one up. Here is the recipe:

2 brown onions - finely chopped
2 garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 kg peeled and chopped sweet potato (about)
400g tin crushed tomatoes
3/4 cup lentils
1 litre stock - salt reduced chicken
extra water
pepper to season

Fry onions and garlic until golden - the longer the better. Add the sweet potato and cover with stock - add extra water if the vegetables are not covered. Add tin tomatoes and lentils. Bring to boil, and then simmer gently for about 50 minutes or until vegetables and lentils are soft. Blend with bamix and serve with a spoonful of yoghurt. Delicious!

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Sunday Afternoon, originally uploaded by ~Panache.

I have just finished reading this book by Khaled Hosseini. The story is about Mariam and Laila who live in Kabul in Afghanistan. Both women end up marrying this man called Rasheed who treats them appallingly. It might well be a story of many women living in Afghanistan during the 1980s and 1990s - from when the Russians retreated. The Taliban came to power in the early 1990s and women were forced to remain at home, living behind their burqua. It is a story of survival - these women survived more heartache, tragedy and pain than anyone should ever have to endure.

A friendship develops between these two women and they help each other face Rasheed with courage until his demise. Despite the fact that he abused both women dreadfully, Mariam pays for his death with her life which she does with dignity and integrity. Laila manages to leave Afghanistan with her two children when Tariq her childhood lover reappears. They begin a life together in Murree in Pakistan that is peaceful, quiet and happy.

Laila chooses to return to Kabul and pours her life into helping the children in an orphanage - her father and friends many years earlier had predicted that she would leave her mark on Afghanistan.

I had difficulty reading this book as it was confronting and painful. The way women are treated and continue to be treated by fundamentalist Islamic groups is harrowing and inexcusable. However, it is good to be reminded that there are women around the world for whom this type of existence is the norm.

Numbering Our Days

faceoff, originally uploaded by solecism.

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

A dear friend shared this verse with me soon after I had my mild stroke. It challenged me to think hard. After reading this verse again and again, thinking, pondering and reflection, and talking to friends, I wrote this devotion:

How do you fill your days? How do you see time - each hour, day, week, year - as units to fill endlessly? Do you have plans, hopes or dreams of what you will do with your life? Is your diary filled with future events? Moses was a man who wanted to reach the Promised Land, but at the end of his life, he realised he had spent all his days working towards a goal that would not be achieved in his lifetime. he was confronted with hs mortality.

I was recently confronted with my own mortality after suffering a mild stroke. My life was filled to the brim with lots of good stuff. Domestic chores happened in the few cracks of space. My days were filled as if I were some invincible goddess with time to live life exactly as she chose. But I am no goddess and I am certainly not immortal. If we number our days, we accept that the time we've been given is a gift. Living as if today were our last day, we'd treasure it and think carefully about filling it - about fulfilling our responsibilities, such as being loving in the important relationships in our lives. We wouldn't presume to be in control of our future (see James 4:13-16). Yet in the midst of this uncertainty, we can still live each day confidently and at peace, trusting in the goodness of God that he will provide, sustain, love and not abandon. We would also hold confidently to the great hope of an eternal destiny.

Each day is God's - if we have wise hearts we will cherish each day as a uniqe opportunity to live as if we truly do fear our God. I am thankful to God for the opportunity to think about how I fill my days.

Prayer: "Loving Father, in the midst of my busy life, please help me to number my days. Help me to remember my mortality and that eternity with you is a reality. Thank you for today and each day of my life to come - they are yours - please help me to fill them wisely. I give you my diary, my plans, hopes and dreams - may you give me a wise heart as I fill my days." Amen.

It is still a challenge to think about how I fill my days.