Gift of the day Reconized

Recognizing the Gifts of each Day


July 2010



With each day comes a gift to you. Something that you see, hear, feel, accomplish, etc., that makes you feel special. Try for a week to identify and journal the gift of the day and see what you are blessed with. Limit yourself to one gift only. This can be hard but it really was a beneficial exercise for me last year when it was “the assignment” of my Tuesday writers’ group. You can write lists or short entries about the gift or long. It doesn’t matter. Just ask yourself what made my day, and that is probably your gift.

Example

My gift of July 14, 2010

I felt incredibly happy when I complemented a person on what a delight it always is to call her because she is so upbeat and exudes positive vibes every time I talk with her. Well you would have thought she had never received a compliment before by her sincere, “Michelle, that is just what I needed to hear today! Thank you so much!” You would have thought I had sent flowers, brought her a chocolate cake with nuts and cream; but no—just a sincere compliment, some kind words. Are they that rare in our workplaces? Yee, gads?! That is an easy fix.



I hope you will try journaling your gift of the day for a week and see if it’s meaningful to you. If it is, don’t let ‘a week’ stop you…..keep going!

Loving the yuccas this year. They are extraordinary.  Mira!
Hugs, Mimi

A little piece of earth in heaven

While cleaning beans at my kitchen sink, I glanced over to our neighbors who were sitting out enjoying their patio. At 150 yards away, I couldn’t tell if they were looking at me or just in my direction. I remembered that they enjoyed the sound of running water made by our fountain. With the beans on the stove in the first cycle of my boil-soak –rinse method I headed downstairs to plug in the fountain.


The fountain needed water added to it, and the rose bush next to it looked dry so I gave it a drink. With hose in hand, I looked around and everything looked like they could use a good soaking. So I started in, watering everything in sight including my bare feet.

I started chuckling as I remembered Pop telling us during our visit in the summer of that he had watered his lush garden in Kentucky only twice that summer. Pop Cobb was married to my Grandma and he was one of the kindest men I have ever known. He was an Arkansas boy who couldn’t read very well but, boy howdy, could he coax more cucumbers, strawberries, okra, tomatoes and whatever else you’d like from his garden. Pop Cobb said there was something special about working in a garden right as a rain shower was ending, the rain is sweeter then. I think Pop just liked to get out in the rain. Pop never could see our pleasure in living in the desert Southwest. Easy to understand from a gardener who grew three types of string beans.

There came a time when Pop decided he needed to cut back on the size of his garden. His rule of thumb was to plant what you could tend to, not what you have room for. Pop would be real tickled with my two pots of tomato plants on our deck which are thriving..

. As Pop’s gardens grew smaller and took longer for him to tend, a light began flickering in his heart, reflected in his eyes. One late spring morning Pop got up from his easy chair, slipped on his mud boots, and snatched his gloves from the hook by the door. The screen door slammed behind him, leaving Frisky on the wrong side of the screen door. His constant companion since Grandma had passed, Frisky knew Pop would be back when he finished in the garden and he would get a treat if he was good. Frisky sat patiently by the door, waiting for Pop.

As the sirens got louder Frisky forgot about his treat and he started barking and howling. Mrs. Shannon who lived next door and who helped Pop with cleaning and cooking had found Pop face down among the carrots and onions. Pop had left his little piece of heaven on earth, taking a bit of earth with him as he entered heaven.

Running up the stairs, I had three thoughts which crossed my mind:

You are too old to be running in the house.

I sure do miss Pop Cobb… And….

There’s not a darn thing you can do with burnt beans.

A face even a mother could love!

Hello! My name is Charlotte the XVI and though I prefer to live in barns,there was not one available. Besides, what a view I have from this deck!!!I am an invited and treasured guest so please do not disturb me! ( I live on the deck off living room.)feed me1 feed me1 feed me1 if you turn on the deck light after dark, you may watch God’s creative hand in action—me catching delicious morsels {squitoes a la crème, moths marinara, and ufos, unidentified flying objects for spiders} which help me grow. Lesson: Me doing what God has designed me to do let’s me know His creative hand and others to see Him in action.
Have a great day and remember to look up, look around, and listen to the quiet.
Michelle

The Gift of Intimacy

We are fortunate to have quite a few yuccas on our five acres in God's country—you do know that God's country is wherever He has planted you?—and this one is part of our yucca garden. Take a good look at it and you will notice the new stalk has wrapped itself around the old. Lots of lessons to learn from this picture and if you will hang with me, a visual learner, you may find God speaking to your heart, too. The obvious lesson is to develop an intimacy with God, sometimes I say "tight with Jesus" . But however you word it is get to know God . We know the basic how to's of developing a relationship with the Lord: confession of sin, acceptance of forgiveness, and growing in knowledge and grace through prayer, Bible study, meditation, and fellowship with believers. That last point leads to the next "message" that God gave me through the intimate wrappping around of the young stalk with the old. Who of the next generation are you in relationship with where they are strengthen for their tasks ahead and you are blessed to be used by God to impart what you have learned along the way?  If you are open to doing this work of God, He will bring people throughout your life to you.  What a privilege I have had in this area. The gift of nurturing the young comes with a definite price but it is so worth it! What pleasure I have received in this calling of God and, by the way, it's on everyone's life! Often these relationships are for a season only but oh what a glorious season it is! Intimacy with God precludes intimacy with His power with others...."and now may God our Father Himself and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do....I Thess. 2:11"
So look around, look up, listen, lean on Him and others, and have a good day!
Hugs all the way around ,
Mimi

Landscape delights in God's country

What happened to June?  It was a whirlwind!  Check my facebook and work website www.gilarangers.com/leamos.htm and you will get my drift. 

But I have had some fun, too, taking a few pictures that have taught me a thing or two about our loving Creator
. Enjoy listening to others for what you receive may be a new friend.
Magdalena was a reluctant participant in our literacy workshops until I listened to her story of un creciendo, a sudden rushing of water down a dry arroyo, when she was a child.  The water came up in her grandmother's yard and took her two brothers down stream. They were rescued after clutching a tree for several hours. Magdalena had a Cinderella story as a child but no prince to the rescue. Her stepmother would not let her go to school but instead kept her home to do the chores.  Knowing very little English she has lived all of her life in Grant County. During workshops for two years I would say, Please teach me some Spanish! She mainly ignored my requests and would seldom make eye contact. After listening to her story the face in the picture became her typical greeting accompanying, "Hola, Michelle." 
Lord send someone today for me to listen to and show your love for them through me.
Con el favor de Dios,
Michelle