Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

Monday, July 30, 2012

Red also means Danger

Psalm 107:29" They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up--
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They cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses.
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He made the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof were still" (Hebrew version).


My Christian ethic theories are pretty much the same as those of other people, be they Christian, Humanists, Buddhist or Holistic.

When it comes to practice, I both spiritually and literally tend to stumble and fall.
Last week we had a rare sunny, but cold day. (So far we've had the most rain summer in eighty years).
We went out on the island to one of the roughest, remotest, but also most beautiful beaches there.
The wind and the waves are always howling in from the west. Wading there there, (one dare not swim), is like being absorbed in by nature. It kind of opens its door and let you experience its splendor for a precious moment. Cool, living, salt water, sand between my toes and the roaring of the waves, never ending, never at ease.


In summertime there often are intruding snakes in our secluded paradises. Foreign, camping people, who will not pay the small fees of staying in legal and nice camping sites. Instead they squat on nice viewpoints, with neither water nor toilet facilities, most likely not even a dustbin. Result; pollution and taking up space for ordinary visitors.

Result 2; I get irritated and try to chase the squatters away. I am not known to be shy when provoked. I am in fact struggling with my hot temper. 



I climbed up the stones from the beach in order to set the record straight, when I stumbled and sprung my ankle. That very ankle was broken some years ago.
Suddenly my priorities were turned upside down.

I stopped caring about the campers and begged God for mercy. Begged to avoid one more broken ankle.
My foot swell up so that I could not touch the ground with it. I did not go to the ER, I was too tired and in too much pain to sit there. I prayed and held my foot in cold water. I told my family, I just needed to wait and pray. I was heard. 



After a few days I can use my foot a little. Life with and without the use of a foot cannot be compared.
What do I know about how those foreigners would have treated me? Most likely they might even have had weapons on board their vehicles, Gunnar says. 
My shepherd by my right hand did protect me from my own stupidity. 


The little red ball to the right is a marker left by the fisherman so that e can find the crab trap. I think I am equipped with a red ball too, so that the Lord can find me "reeling to and fro, staggering like a drunken man."


Magical Mystery Teacher is hosting Ruby Tuesday 2 together with Gemma Wiseman

Sunday, July 15, 2012

RUBY MOMENTS

These pictures were taken on a local beach, granted the people of Haugesund by the Jew Moritz Rabinowitz. He and his family were killed in Holocaust just a few years after this donation. His spirit and kindness is living on. This is my favorite beach where we went to gather strength two days before the funeral of my last aunt.
I often wonder how people take life, health, family for granted.
How they are making plans for the future, as if it is their right to have a future free from sorrow, loss and  illness.Or for that sake a future at all.


I hear them making plans; next year I'll have new teeth, take a sabbatical, celebrate our silver wedding, even plan a pregnancy 12 month ahead and start saving for college for the perfect child to come.

Life has taught me, I just have today, not even always today, but this very moment. 




For nine years we have had our bags packed, and our cellphones on our night stands for emergencies. We have often had to use them.


Even more I have learned to cherish the moment, to seize the gifts God is sending.
A day at the beach is a "dream day", with low shoulders, children's laughter, a book, flowers and red toe nails in the white, soft sand.


"Oh gift of God,
Oh perfect day,
whereon shall no man work, 
But play,
Wheron it is enough to me,
Not to be being,
But to be."
H. W. Longfellow.

Magical Mystery Teacher is hosting Ruby Tuesday 2 together with Gemma Wiseman