As he was drawing near―already on the way down the Mount of Olives―the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, sayng, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
~Luke 19:37-38~
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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Fridayand this is today's free-writing post.
no one is to blame
take the blame
********************
We sure like to find someone or something to blame for our problems, don't we? If we can blame our circumstances or our upbringing or 'the other guy' we can shift the blame for our faults or misfortunes somewhere else. This seemed almost trendy over the past few years.
The problem is, even if it ISN'T truly my fault that something bad happened, how I respond to the situation is completely up to me. And casting about for someone to blame isn't going to help anything.
Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself. ~Joseph Campbell
I thought about the difference between taking blame and taking responsibility, and I believe taking responsibility is the more solutions-oriented response. If I blame someone or something other than myself, it's sometimes an excuse. If I accept the blame, it leads to me feeling bad or guilty about whatever it was but it might just end there.
But if I accept responsibility, that implies that I'm going to do something constructive about it. I'll look for a way to resolve a problem, or change my response, or learn something valuable.
Blame is about guilt and shame. I think it's always a burden. We want to be blameless before God, and the only way to do that is to accept responsibility for our own sin and then accept God's forgiveness for it so that he can wipe away the guilt.
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. We all seem to have a bit of spring fever, and many are on spring break or looking forward to it. The weather, and specifically the season of spring, is what this week's prompt asked me to think about.
I don't know a lot about Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, but I know that it's a real thing and a struggle for many. And I have certainly noticed that my own moods and emotions are influenced by the weather, to a certain extent. I'm more likely to feel tired, unmotivated, moody, and lacking energy when the weather is grey and rainy. I'm tempted to be gloomy when the weather is gloomy. But it's much easier to feel hopeful, happy, and upbeat on days that are sunny and warm and show signs of spring.
The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also. ~Harriet Ann Jacobs
Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. ~Rainer Maria Rilke
Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. ~Doug Larson
Well . . . I don't know about that. First of all, I've never been very good at whistling. And second, it is really uncomfortable to unexpectedly step in a cold or muddy puddle. Maybe ruin my shoe? No, I wouldn't be whistling if that happened.
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens
Now that captures the season well, I think!
But spring inspires hope and optimism in us. The return of longer days and warmer weather reminds us that summer is coming. Budding trees, blooming flowers, and singing birds all remind us that life goes on and we have much to be thankful for and to look forward to.
I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring. ~Helen Keller
For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green. ~J.R.R. Tolkien
Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.
~William Shakespeare
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. ~Alfred Lord Tennyson
Spring inspires romance, after all!
My beloved spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."
~Song of Songs 2:10-13~
Certainly the flowers and trees and birds can inspire thoughts of romance and new beginnings, but I think the reliable turn of the seasons also inspires us to hope and believe in lasting love and faithfulness too.
Even the rainy days that we expect in spring can bring hope, because we need the rains if we want our gardens to grow, and so it is in our lives as well.
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today―to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul―then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
~Deuteronomy 11:13-15~
Let's strive to know the LORD.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring showers that water the land.
~Hosea 6:3~
I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face. ~ Langston Hughes
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A hodgepodge is a jumble or assortment of things that might not appear to belong together. Joyce at From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly link-up called Wednesday Hodgepodge that is a little collection of questions for bloggers to answer just for fun and to get to know each other. I always look forward to chatting with friends over coffee, so pour a cup of your favorite and let's visit for a few minutes!
Here are this week's questions - and my answers - for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge.
1. Spring is officially upon us, no matter what the weather may be in your neck of the woods. Is there any 'spring cleaning' on your to-do list? What's your most dreaded task?
It's only 'spring cleaning' because it happens to be spring, but I do need to do a good tidy of the townhouse, and get the guest room ready for the kids' visit on Easter weekend. Our patio needs cleaned up too, especially if I hope to make it at all suitable for sitting out. Yard work has always been what I least wanted to do, so that's something I guess I can be thankful for here - it's not our job! Unless we choose to do something with our patio area!
2. What's something many people seem to love, but to you feels like 'watching the grass grow'?
Gardening. So many people I know are so excited to get digging in the dirt, and put out bedding plants and plan their vegetable gardens, and I have zero interest in any of that.
3. Mint grows in abundance during the spring season. Are you a fan? What's your favorite food with a 'minty' flavor?
I like mint, but I don't exactly love it. I do like Shamrock shakes, but haven't had one this year, so it's not a huge favorite.
4. It's been said, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.' Agree or disagree? Explain.
Hmmm. I'm not sure I agree that fond feelings will grow simply because of absence. I think when we're separated from someone we are already quite fond of, we can be motivated to be more intentional and maybe more creative in expressing our devotion. In that case, the affection could grow. But it's also possible to sort of romanticize and be unrealistic about the object of affection, which might feel like you're growing fonder, but it may not turn out quite so well.
5. Are there any festive spring events in your city or town? If so, will you take advantage of them?
I'm sure there are, but I'm not sure what they are. I went on a birding walk this past weekend, and there's another nature walk I'm considering this coming Saturday, but I don't know that those are 'festive'. I believe my husband's work will be having a Tulip Festival again this year and I will go see the tulip fields!
These photos are from last year, the week before the tulip festival, so not at the peak of color.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Just a few photos from a birding walk in the woods and a stroll along the wetlands trail on Saturday.
With a stop at the playground, of course!
Has spring sprung where you are? Leave a comment and let me know!
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Welcome to Twenty-Six Lists! I hope you'll join me in this simple link-up, where I share a writing prompt for some kind of list, and invite you to share what's on your list. Your list can be very simple or include lots of explanation; short or long; a bullet point list or essay style. Interpret the list prompts however you like, depending on how much time you have to spend, and how much background you'd like to share.
This time around, since we've just finished St Patrick's Day, which has a lot of luck and good fortune associated with it, I thought a fun list prompt would be "My Lucky Days". There are lots of directions you could go with this theme! Do you have some favorite days on the calendar that are special to you? Maybe there are certain signs that you believe mean good things are coming your way, or maybe you have your own personal 'good luck charms' or practices to make sure you have the best possible day. Is there one day of the week or of each month that is really special to you, a sort of lucky day? Or maybe you'll look back and pick out some events in your life that turned out to be very lucky days for you. I think that's what I will do.
Here are some events in my life that brought me blessings and goodness. I don't know how much I want to attribute to "luck" but for lack of a better term . . .
My Lucky Days:
I sure wish I could name a day on which I won a jackpot in the lottery! That would be a lucky day! But I didn't. But I think this is a fun story to start with, even though this is not even close to a "luckiest" day ever, but I did win a year's worth of Tim Horton's coffee once! It was a website giveaway, and I think it was to promote openings of a bunch of American stores. So a year's worth of Tim Horton's turned out to be $500 in Tim Horton's gift cards! We had no Tim Horton's near us at the time, but we had some vacations planned to Canada. I sent one of the gift cards to my parents in Alberta so the family there enjoyed lots of coffee and donuts on me, and we used the rest of those gift cards over the next several trips to Canada. Our summer vacation that year was to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and we joked that Tim Horton's was the proud sponsor of our trip.
On to more serious "lucky days" . . . It was a very lucky day when I met my husband, though I don't remember what the date was on the calendar. We first met right around Labour Day, at the beginning of the school year, but didn't really start getting to know each other until a couple weeks later. We were in some classes together, and we happened to wind up in a little group that regularly went out for coffee together, and the rest is history!
I consider the birthdays of each of our children and grandchildren to be lucky days because having these people in our lives has brought us so much happiness and so many good things!
Except for my current job, my jobs since moving to the United States have all been due to the happy chance of knowing someone who thought I might be interested in a job opportunity. I have twice been a paid musician or worship director at church, I have been the Receivables treasurer at church, I helped establish a high school tutorial co-op which led to a paid gig tutoring, and that in turn earned me a recommendation to tutor in a hybrid middle school, friends put me in touch with the owner of a coffee shop and roastery that needed a shop manager, and while my husband was with his last employer they hired me as an office manager.
It wasn't exactly MY lucky day, but it was certainly a series of fortunate timing and coincidences that led to my husband's job opportunity in Ohio and our move here. He was job-hunting, and was contacted by someone who had heard from a mutual industry acquaintance that he was available and might be a good fit for an opening. In that first conversation, my husband mentioned that we were open to moving somewhere within a day's drive of both Maryland and Columbus, and surprise! the job opportunity was near Columbus! After a phone interview they wanted to know if we could come for an in-person interview, maybe during the last week of October? And we had already planned a trip to Columbus for that week anyway, so it sure worked out well!
And speaking of coincidences, our other big lucky day experiences started way back in 1993 when my husband entered his name in the "green card lottery" so we could move to the United States. It's a long story and worthy of its own post (which I promise I'll do sometime), but here's the shortest version I can manage. His name was drawn, and once he had secured a job offer, there were a series of lucky days for us to finish the green card process. And the job offer itself was a very lucky thing because it was job he hadn't applied for but came his way by an amazing coincidence.
Our green card lottery and job offer experiences could be considered luck by some, but I know that the coincidences were planned by God, and not left to chance at all. I told some of the story a bit over a year ago: How We Won The Lottery
The dice are thrown into the lap,
but their every decision is from the LORD.
~Proverbs 16:33~
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
~Psalm 139:16
How would you describe your lucky days? Please share.
The link-up is open for two weeks, with a new prompt every other Tuesday.
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