I was struck by what you said about CS Lewis saying God whispers in our pleasures and shouts in our pain. I would not have thought of a reaction like you had, of thinking it made God sound cruel. I see how it could strike someone that way and that interpretation makes sense. I take it to mean more like what we read about the "still small voice" Elijah heard. Elijah heard God's voice as a whisper, it seems to me, because he heard it in quietness, where the voice does not have to be loud in order for us to hear it. I think God was present in all the loud things that the passage mentions, too, but the big point was that we need to listen for and hear God's voice in the quiet. I take what Lewis said to mean that in pleasure we hear God's voice as a whisper because that is a quiet time, and in pain we might hear God's voice as a shout because we are hearing it above the noise (so to speak) of the pain. At different times we hear God's voice in different ways. We hear it in the burble of a stream, as you describe, and we also hear it in the clap of branches in the wind or the crash of thunder. I think "hearing" is a recognition of the presence of God in everything, not as God actually using things like pleasure or pain as potentially cruel tools to force us to listen.
I'm a birder who is grateful for this way of connecting to the creator. Beyond the analysis of bird ID & reporting my sightings or hearings to eBird, there's the part that's deeper. I explore the natural world on the theory that every creature is somehow an expression of creator's love, that creation & re-creation is love in action. When I dwell on it, it is truly stunning. Thank you for your words!
I just had to go download the Audubon app because we are getting all kinds of birds at our feeders, so thanks for that tip! As an introvert, I am a deep lover of the silence, or at least the everyone shutting up and sitting with the noise of the earth, but becoming more comfortable in the listening silence.
I did an absurd amount of reading about milkweed, because I overthink all of the processes, and all I wanted to know was whether to direct seed or start indoors, but I learned they need to be out through the winter or to freeze them for 3 weeks before trying to germinate, otherwise it may take months. Not sure what process your milkweed took, but a local friend also shared a bunch with me also, and I planted a gallon bag worth of pods outside and a quart jar full in peat pots in my indoor greenhouse so we will see if anything comes to fruition. I still have one more quart jar of seed pods if you would like more to attempt.
If I had to pick favorite guilty pleasure junk foods, I would say Sonic tater tots topped with cheese (literally just a slice of cheddar cheese melted over crispy tots) or a Wendy's chocolate frosty. Pre-celiac diagnosis, about once a year I would have a massive craving for fried fish from Long John Silver's.
Oops...forgot the junk food part. Cheetos, the crunchy ones! The cheesy goodness without the l'm-gettting-old lactose. And who doesn't want to sport orange fingers?
This evening while driving nearby back roads, I noticed a quantity and variety of birds I've never noticed. I wonder if they've been there all along and I just needed to see them today.
I love this sentence: "This land is beginning to tell me, through its interactions with sky and seed, cloud and creatures, that it has its way of doing things, and it is not a quiet way at all. What good is muted praise? I never really understood this before, probably because I never knew how to listen." I'm working in my own garden today, and yes, it's noisy bc I live on a busy street. But the quiet persists and I'm lost in the sheer pluck of the perennials pushing through the hard soil…reaching up from their little dark graves to reach for the sun. That is how they worship!!
And about that Filet of Fish….we seldom frequent McD's but when we do we usually ask them to make a "double-fish with all the trimmings" such as on the Deluxe hamburger. Why should the beef have all the fun!!
Love your writing and the variety of subjects covered in each of them!
I was struck by what you said about CS Lewis saying God whispers in our pleasures and shouts in our pain. I would not have thought of a reaction like you had, of thinking it made God sound cruel. I see how it could strike someone that way and that interpretation makes sense. I take it to mean more like what we read about the "still small voice" Elijah heard. Elijah heard God's voice as a whisper, it seems to me, because he heard it in quietness, where the voice does not have to be loud in order for us to hear it. I think God was present in all the loud things that the passage mentions, too, but the big point was that we need to listen for and hear God's voice in the quiet. I take what Lewis said to mean that in pleasure we hear God's voice as a whisper because that is a quiet time, and in pain we might hear God's voice as a shout because we are hearing it above the noise (so to speak) of the pain. At different times we hear God's voice in different ways. We hear it in the burble of a stream, as you describe, and we also hear it in the clap of branches in the wind or the crash of thunder. I think "hearing" is a recognition of the presence of God in everything, not as God actually using things like pleasure or pain as potentially cruel tools to force us to listen.
I'm a birder who is grateful for this way of connecting to the creator. Beyond the analysis of bird ID & reporting my sightings or hearings to eBird, there's the part that's deeper. I explore the natural world on the theory that every creature is somehow an expression of creator's love, that creation & re-creation is love in action. When I dwell on it, it is truly stunning. Thank you for your words!
Thanks for the bagel recommendation! Haven’t had a bagel in Grand Rapids for a very long time, I agree, they just aren’t the same.
I just had to go download the Audubon app because we are getting all kinds of birds at our feeders, so thanks for that tip! As an introvert, I am a deep lover of the silence, or at least the everyone shutting up and sitting with the noise of the earth, but becoming more comfortable in the listening silence.
I did an absurd amount of reading about milkweed, because I overthink all of the processes, and all I wanted to know was whether to direct seed or start indoors, but I learned they need to be out through the winter or to freeze them for 3 weeks before trying to germinate, otherwise it may take months. Not sure what process your milkweed took, but a local friend also shared a bunch with me also, and I planted a gallon bag worth of pods outside and a quart jar full in peat pots in my indoor greenhouse so we will see if anything comes to fruition. I still have one more quart jar of seed pods if you would like more to attempt.
If I had to pick favorite guilty pleasure junk foods, I would say Sonic tater tots topped with cheese (literally just a slice of cheddar cheese melted over crispy tots) or a Wendy's chocolate frosty. Pre-celiac diagnosis, about once a year I would have a massive craving for fried fish from Long John Silver's.
Oops...forgot the junk food part. Cheetos, the crunchy ones! The cheesy goodness without the l'm-gettting-old lactose. And who doesn't want to sport orange fingers?
This evening while driving nearby back roads, I noticed a quantity and variety of birds I've never noticed. I wonder if they've been there all along and I just needed to see them today.
I love this sentence: "This land is beginning to tell me, through its interactions with sky and seed, cloud and creatures, that it has its way of doing things, and it is not a quiet way at all. What good is muted praise? I never really understood this before, probably because I never knew how to listen." I'm working in my own garden today, and yes, it's noisy bc I live on a busy street. But the quiet persists and I'm lost in the sheer pluck of the perennials pushing through the hard soil…reaching up from their little dark graves to reach for the sun. That is how they worship!!
And about that Filet of Fish….we seldom frequent McD's but when we do we usually ask them to make a "double-fish with all the trimmings" such as on the Deluxe hamburger. Why should the beef have all the fun!!
Love your writing and the variety of subjects covered in each of them!
Blessings to you.