Beauty

   

 As we have watched our feral hen Beauty, hatch out seven chicks in early August and battle hawks, possums and other assorted enemies, we are now left with five nearly grown chickens and a new appreciation for chicken motherhood. She came to us from a shrubbery in White Rock. Her human friends there noticed a raccoon in the neighbourhood and transferred her here for safety. She never did get the hang of staying in the coop and consequently I have only ever had one egg from her. I know that because her eggs are white (she has gray ear lobes) whereas the rest of my girls lay brown eggs (they have red ear lobes---- strange, but true.) That was three years ago.
     She sat on about nine eggs for much of July without me even knowing that she was there amongst the hollyhocks and peonies. Once the little balls of fluff were hatched, three black and four gray, she taught them everything a yard bird must know: dogs are okay, cats, not so much. The soil and grass must be scratched and scratched hard to reveal black beetles, worms and other delicacies. Store bought chicken crumble is not to be depended upon but hen scratch must not be ignored because of the yummy corn it contains. Other hens are to be avoided as well as motor vehicles of all kinds: cars, trucks, lawn mowers, you name it. You must always keep moving and make noise the whole time so that Mama knows you are there. Never mind that big noisy guy in the yard, that's just your father. Roosting is a useful skill and chest butting can be fun. Stay together, keep eating, no wandering please. Keep your beak clean, your feathers fluffed and when in doubt, run like the chickens.
     Beauty, like Lulu before her, is the epitome of grace under pressure, all the while making motherhood look easy. It isn't! But then you knew that....

Sleeping

     When you are not sleeping the world seems like a crueler place. Snoring partners, tick-tocking clocks and enthusiastic roosters all seem to take on a dastardly edge. Even my digital radio alarm clock, my friend in all things organized, now seems like his own evil twin; he positively gloats as the minutes trot by and I watch, pillow and insomnia in tow.
     I have always needed to read before bed, always looked forward to it and the escape it brought, not to mention the screen-clearing it afforded before sleep could be had. Now I am reading at both ends of my night, and it is not pleasurable, only a means to an end. I have not watched television in bed for years (we are certified Netflix fans) and I realize now why I stopped. Those commercials, repetitive, insipid, ridiculous, did I mention, repetitive, will drive me insane. ( And believe me, these days I don't have far to go!) A certain cat food commercial with the catchy jingle, "Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow....." seen 3 times in 15 minutes remains my personal un-favourite. (Strangely enough, they were still using that, back when I did watch TV. Not funny then, still not funny now, really!)
     I suppose that as a 50 something woman, graying and now groggy with fatigue, I should not be surprised. Insomnia is apparently a woman's lot at this time of life. However it is a relatively new experience for me, especially on this scale and so I am flummoxed. What to do? Warm milk, alcohol, pills of all kinds are sometimes suggested. My problem is exhaustion brings nausea but I am too tired to care; I just feel awful! I am not looking for sympathy, just the understanding from others that I am functioning at way below my usual game. With less than half the sleep I used to get, I am lucky if I even know what game we're playing, much less the score. When a dear friend called me the other day and woke me from a snooze in the middle of the afternoon, I knew I had reached a new low. I now know that I am tired and old and now napping.... The end can't be far off! At least I'll get some sleep?

Acre

 

     Once in a while you meet someone who makes you proud to be a fellow human being; a person so remarkable in the way that they care for others that you feel glad to be around them. Jas Singh of God's Little Acre is just such a person. Today we went to the farm he runs, as part of a field trip for our daughter's grade 5 class at school. The teacher wanted the students to experience a charitable farm as part of their learning about social responsibility. God's Little Acre was the perfect location for the kids to start learning about what some folks are doing to help others. It has been in the local news lately as it has needed volunteers to help with its burgeoning harvest. I had read about it and felt that I wanted to be a parent driver on this field trip just so I could see what this place was all about. The concept is simple; it's 30+ acres with a small market where produce is sold to cover seed costs. What I hadn't counted on was my reaction to this project. Jas's desire to feed the hungry of our community with the harvest of the land he leases is a noble undertaking. The way he talks to students though is what really caught my interest. He spoke to the kids in a straightforward way with a basic message: You can do whatever you want to do, just make sure that you really want to do it and you can make it happen. I'm paraphrasing of course, but that was essentially it. He stressed the importance of community, of people helping people to make things happen. God's Little Acre is a testimony to exactly that. We spent a couple of hours harvesting carrots. It was pretty easy, even relaxing. We were able to feed a couple thousand folks a couple of carrots each with what we picked today apparently. I can hardly wait to go back. I think God's Little Acre is going to become one of my favourite places....

Left

     A tough week...lots of tears and change and grief and did I mention the tears? It's particularly hard to deal with when the one crying is your "tough" daughter---the one who doesn't let herself cry or when she does, brings it home first so as not to let others see what she's feeling.
     What can you do? When it's big changes at school, organizational issues that seem unfair, you can talk to the teacher, talk to the principal, write letters to the assistant superintendent, the school superintendent, the school trustees. It doesn't seem to be that effective at times but it surely is therapeutic and I recommend it highly.
     I think the issue here is my little one's sense of self. Always seemingly confident and self-assured, when the news came that friends would be leaving her to go across the hall, she was devastated. And she still is reeling with the feelings, the grief and the sense of being left behind. No one wants to be left behind. The leaver usually has the excitement of change and a new experience. The leavee just gets left. And when you feel that you are the only one....
     I have been trying to explain to my daughter the fact that grief is not just about losing someone who died; grieving is a reaction to all change and loss, big or small. When the biggest loss you've had is a pet fish dying, then it is hard to understand. Grief can feel big and big feelings can be expressed many ways. When I suggested that my daughter express herself through art, which she loves, she scrawled KMN in huge letters on her iPod screen. It stands for "kill me now" and wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
     We'll get through it of course--- what else can you do? In the meantime, there's lots of hugs and time for talking, hanging out and letting it go. We listen to each other, love each other, pray and listen some more. It's in telling our story that we learn and grow and ready ourselves for other challenges. And there will be other bigger, sadder days ahead, God willing; other times when we are left behind. That's just the way it is....
   

Question

You have invited a work associate/friend and his family over for dinner.
They are due to arrive at 5 p.m. It is now 4 p.m.
Do you:
1. Make a marinade for the salmon you are cooking on the barbeque tonight?
2. Offer to help your wife with the other courses she is preparing?
3. Check the bathroom, make sure there are clean towels and give the toilet a quick once-over?
4. Shower, get dressed, sit and have an aperitif and glance through the latest issue of  "Fine Woodworking" magazine?
5. Pick up the neighbour's Bobcat and move several large loads of firewood from the front of the property to the back of the property?
You've got it...it's number 5!
And if that is not obvious then you don't know my husband;)

Life

     A couple of members of a young band we just saw and enjoyed at The Roadhouse were placed in medically-induced comas after being in a terrible car accident. Our elder daughter remarked that this incident caused her to realize that life is not forever. "Live it to the fullest" she said, "life, I mean." Strong words coming from a fourteen year old girl who has challenges of her own to contend with.
    As we think of them and pray for them and their families, we remember how fleeting, how fragile, how unpredictable our days on this planet are for us all...And we wish these two young men health and healing....