“The toes cannot go where I cannot see.”

Sometimes I can’t find the images in my mind when I search online, & it yields some surprising composites :-). In the upper left you see someone with a gloved hand & a tool, prepared to weed. This is not usually how I weed. Usually in the summer it is too hot to go out & work, so as I drive home & see something amiss in my yard (many things are amiss in my yard, I am referring to things glaringly amiss), I just go out & try to fix the obvious. Wearing sandals only, hands ungloved, I reach down & yank the unsightliest of unlovelies. The other day I posted about sitting down on a curb I had scanned for (& found no trace of) ants only to be attacked shortly by a swarm of black ants that found my feet anyway. With this on my mind, today I decided I will only go in & pull just a FEW weeds. However as I walked into my garden, I heard myself saying (out loud – to myself), “Oh no, the toes cannot go where I cannot see!” This has double meaning for me. Perhaps there is something amiss in my psyche, or perhaps as I get older, the filter wears thinner. But I often find myself saying things that have a double meaning & this one caught my attention immediately. No, I rarely go where I plan – life has a way of taking you off course – but at least I try to see ahead…step only where it is “safe.” But have I tried to play life too safe? Ironically, that is never safe at all! Perhaps there is a better way & perhaps it is not too late for me! (PS, try not to look for these “See ‘n Say” “Rorschach” tests of the mind in yourself or others. Perhaps if something blatantly Freudian or clearly double-meaninged slaps you in the face you might take pause. But it is never safe to assume). #Youcallmeoutuponthewatersthegreatunknownwherefeetmayfail (“Oceans” by Hillsong United)
#ifitstrueYouusebrokenthingsthenhereIamLordImallYours(“Broken Things” – Matthew West
#nofilter
#Peoplearestrangewhenyoureastranger (The Doors)
#healingishappening
#inthesubconsciousWheretheWildThingsAre (Maurice Sendak, totally out of context 😉

All about me? Freudian borders!

During my quiet time this morning, I turned to my phone to look up the history of various nations, to see when their borders were determined and by whom. So I questioned God, “did You not originally have the borders in mind for all countries and empires? How far back do we go to determine current, modern day borders? Does the past decide who gets to live where, today?” I was surprised by His answer, which is always tailored more personally to me than to just worldly issues. God seems to want to answer my deep down, personal questions, rather than my initial, surface, hypothetical ones. He knows that’s what I’m more interested in, or maybe it’s what He’s more interested in working on in me at the time :-). The question…Me: “So who decides the boundaries, shall we let the past decide for us where we live?” “I am giving you freedom,” He said first. Then, “Child, your past does not define you. And the same freedom I offer you can be found by others if they will turn to Me.” You know, I don’t consciously think the world revolves around me. But sometimes I think that in my questions to God, it often really is “all about me.” It’s a little embarrassing to think that’s really all my questions have to do with, but it’s nice to know that whatever questions I have, God can find a way to relate them back to my life, and address the underlying issues in the current stream of my day to day flow. He addresses that nagging undertow that threatens to pull me away from forward movement towards Him. Thank You, God, for knowing my needs, and addressing what I really need, rather than just what I think I need or want. (Oh, and just in case anyone wondered, the picture is of a map of Spain. Pretty unrecognizable to most of us who don’t live there :-).