Flowers and rain week

 Monday, February 22, 2021

It's a pretty quiet day at work. I don't have an early call so W comes to the office with me. Before we walk, we record next Sunday's talk. Since we trade off preparing the talks, this one is written by W. I add some applications but it's less work for me.

It's cold all day - but not as cool as the weekend, when the sun hardly came out from behind the clouds. As soon as there's sunshine, the air heats up. Inside the house, there's a gardenia surprise. I popped a blooming branch into a glass of water and put it in a planter. This morning, there are two flowers so the whole house smells sweet. So much better than artificial air fresheners!

All week we're doing an online conference to replace the in-person get-together at an exotic location. I can tell you, it's not the same thing! In the evening, the special speaker is Os Guinness, a writer and scholar. It's like sitting in a good college course so of course I enjoy it.

The orchids are blooming. This one, fragrant pink on drooping woody stems, can be easily overlooked. It hangs from the guava tree beside the porch.

This one is a recent gift from a friend, also fragrant. It is gorgeous on the porch - looks almost like a flying insect up close.

And there's one more blooming right now, a white that hasn't bloomed before.

Tuesday

We do our regular 2-mile loop and then I go home to piece the back of a quilt. The strips have been sitting in my home office - enough already. Time to put that border on and pin it. Sumi helps me place safety pins through the backing, cotton batting, and quilt top. I roll it up for Gum to bring to the office later. I'll quilt during online meetings to keep my brain focused.

It would have been so much easier with a pattern. Instead, I cut picture squares from two different orange batik pieces and put strips around them. That would have been ok, except the motives are different sizes. Well, the top is not perfectly even so it's going to be a beast to quilt. I lay it out on the office table.

I'm working in the office before 8:30 but walk home for lunch and spot dozens of these 5" blossoms, fallen from the trees along the street. God is lavish with beauty. Look at the yellow ruffles!

Here are two good reasons to go home for lunch today: the first is the lettuce wraps made of hoisin sauce, fried rice, and papaya leaves/flowers. I roll a Yanto Organics leaf around the innards and sigh with pleasure. Soooo good. I make one for each of the helpers, who are eating plain rice and papaya. "Not bad," they say. They're always shocked by what I combine.

Second, there are freshly baked pretzel rolls, German style. They're still warm. Yum.

Tonight is a coaching session for the beta online course: the Re Imagined Vision Board. Let's see what we learn and what else needs to be added. It's a visual reminder of alignment with what I'm called to do.

This morning, I add the word "art" to my vision board along with a funny quote: "You have to be odd to be #1." Makes me smile. Oh oh, I've written over the shapes that looked like cyclists. Gone, people! No matter.

When you look at the page, do you see a right or left eye? Or can you imagine both? I smeared 3 stamp pads around blank paper and then filled in one shape with a pupil and eye.

I paste on a clear envelope. I add a few shapes in it, including a miniature origami pinwheel. It partially covers up "Art." However, creating flows above and under everything we do, so the word doesn't have to be visible. Art happens.

Good News is the central and grounding concept of my life. With a few more quotes, I'm almost done. The little envelope beside health is labeled "how"; team - "who"; lead - "what"; rest - "when".  I'll fill the envelopes as I go.

Wednesday

There's no time to play today. The periodic "brain rests" of making drain away stress and create head space for what's coming. Today I spend the morning crushing through papers and to-do lists. In the afternoon, there's an online team meeting between two conference seminars.

One seminar is on "Better Together," which aligns with Who Not How, the Hyatt LeaderBook for March. Every month, I enjoy the LeaderBook selection, reading and reflecting on leadership concepts - but this one strikes a special chord of memory.

Why? I remember my dad paying someone to do things at the house. When I asked why he didn't do that himself (painting?), he answered, "Why should I spend myself on something I'm not good at, when I can earn 5X the amount in an hour at something that's easy for me?" He was ahead of his time.

It's not just about money, but about investing ones self in what God has called and gifted us for. Someone else might be great at what is hard for you or enjoy something you're not interested in doing. My brain spins into recruitment mode.

A counselor responds that he's willing to do an initial meetings. A peer contacts me: would I mentor them? I ask if they will mentor me as well - reciprocal mentoring? Sure, because we're "Better Together" indeed. As usual, God has set me up for the next step before I know it's coming.

Thursday

It's walking day again. "Bring a raincoat," Veronica warns us. What good advice. We start through the rice fields. The trails wind between paddies, with mountains on all sides. The fields are terraced, cut into the hillsides.

W steps aside to let someone pass him on the path - and lands in the watery pool where the rice is planted. Ugh. Wet muddy feet. (Which doesn't matter later when we're soaked from head to foot.) My hat flies off my head and into the water. Kiki snags it with a long walking stick.

And then we're into jungle. Banana leaves, towering bamboo, pines, and trees shelter us..

Someone has split 3" bamboo to channel a strong flow of clean mountain water, ready for hand-washing.

This is a typical hut, housing a restaurant or shop along the trail. The roof is thatched, the posts are bamboo, and the sides are strips of bark.

The dogs love to climb. They run further up the path to a shelter above the path. For every 5 km we walk, they probably run 15-20. It's good exercise for them each week.

We hire a guide for the day to make sure we find a new lookout over the waterfall we usually hike to. There it is in the distance. You can see the whole vista from this chair, whose 8' legs brace it on the edge of a cliff. It's hard to get perspective from these pics, but we are literally at a drop-off, high above the ground without rails or guards. I perch for a picture anyway.

Or you can climb even higher to a 5' wide viewing platform with no sides on it. If you fall off, you'll tumble 30-50 feet down the hill until a tree catches you. You're assumed to be smart enough not to harm yourself, whether you are a child or adult.

This part of the trail is newly carved into the hillside overlooking jungle and rice paddies.

There's bamboo 60' tall (Waldemar stands with Angie for scale). It's great building material, 6" thick and light enough for 2 men to carry.

The path winds between newly-built eating or resting shelters. On a rainy day without other tourists, we don't have to compete for trail space.

Only one lady is cooking today, midway to our destination. Pauline orders a meal for 7. "It will be enough, I think, to taste everything."

When we return, the chef is ready. We take off our shoes and sit cross-legged around the feast, which most of us eat by hand. Herbed coconut rice (nasi liwet), fried tofu, raw tree leaves and steamed watercress from the fields, sambal (peppery hot sauce), stinky beans, and salted fish (pic below) ... so delicious (I skip the fish). And we are stuffed.

There's a squatting toilet at the back. No paper, just a dipper with water to rinse off yourself. Foreigners often have a hard time standing back up. Do this often enough and your calves and thighs become strong as you push yourself upright. It's no joke for some, though.

To get to the toilet, you walk through another shelter where 3 men are boiling palm sap  See the fire in the ground and the hole over it where the wok rests?

They pour the boiled liquid into little bamboo rounds. As the syrup cools, they pop the little cylinders of sweetness into leaf wrappings. The man gives me a sample. Two 6-packs of palm sugar straight from the fields cost $1.75US. Our helper uses it in all kinds of foods - so we buy four leaves. We'll share it.

On the last 2 km, the wind picks up and brings the rain. It's been drizzling on and off, but this is the real thing.

The trail is under water in places but we slosh through. No wonder everything is verdant!

My thin poncho flaps in the wind. There's a hole in the back but no matter - the seams leak water as well. We are soaked but happy after an hour in the deluge. The water is warm, after all.

Our shoes are so full of water that they overflow onto the mats as we step into the car. Even Gypsy, often reluctant to jump into the back of the car, hops right in. The dogs lay in wet heaps behind the backseat.

Read more:

*O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your might! Deuteronomy 3:24

*I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ Isaiah 7:8

*So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Coriinthians 5:20

*God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27

Moravian Prayer: Creator of the universe, you opened the windows to heaven and we have begun to see. Let us continue to see, ever more clearly, your glory, your love, and your will. Be our vision still.

Dear Lord, we are here for your glory, to tell others about you and to care for them. Give us the courage to do your will. Guide us and protect us. Amen.