Author: Helen

The Woodpecker and the Blue-Tits

Standard

For the past number of years I’ve had the great joy of watching birds nesting in a box on our house wall. We have a wee video camera inside the box which is linked to our TV. Some years it’s been Great-Tits, other years Blue-Tits.

This year it was the Blue Tits again!. I didn’t think we had any nesting this year as the foliage around the box had been pruned back and it wasn’t well camouflaged. Also – the camera seemed not to be working.

One day I noticed some Blue-Tits coming and going and we managed to get the camera working again… only to discover the nest had been built, eggs laid and there were 3 growing chicks!

They are nearly ready to fledge and I think will be away in the next few days!

BUT… 2 days ago I heard a knocking and I couldn’t work out what it was or where it was coming from. After going outside and watching for a bit I noticed the woodpecker that lives in the woods coming and trying to make the entry hole bigger. My TV screen showed it popping its head into the nesting box and I realised it was trying to get the wee chicks… PANIC! I could scare it away… as long as I sat and noticed when it was coming around, but I couldn’t sit there all day!

Last night I woke a few times and was convinced that it was attacking the box to get the chicks again … This morning … all was well, chicks intact and Mum coming into bring grubs etc. to feed them. But I noticed the hole had been pecked at and knew the Woodpecker was still about.

Mark managed to order a metal hole guard to protect the hole from any more damage and put a temporary metal strip over the pecked part.

You see, last year, we had Tits nesting there with 6 wee chicks and one morning when they’d been hatched for a week or so, we found the  opaque glass window smashed and no baby birds there. I have to admit I was really sad, but really had no idea what had happened… until this year!

I hope we’ve managed to protect the chicks from Woody, this year, so they are able to fledge and do well, but it got me pondering again!

How it is that when we are unguarded, the attacks of Satan come to steal kill and destroy what is developing in a good healthy way. Like the Woodpecker, Satan has no other intention than to steal, kill and destroy… no care that the chicks have been carefully tended and nurtured until they are almost ready to fend for themselves… and how tragic when he succeeds in his mission.

I realised that we need to be always alert to the “woodpeckers” in our lives… Those thoughts, those people, even, who come to knock us down, belittle and destroy our confidence. we need to continually guarding our minds and what we allow to settle there so that one day we can really find freedom and fulfilment in being who God created us to be.

Psalm 147 tells us that God strengthens the bars of our gates… so we can stay secure in His Word and protection… gates being the places of entry and authority.

Let us make sure our entrances and windows of our lives are firmly secured…take up the full armour of God that we can stand against all the schemes of the evil one! Then we can grow and fly at the right time!

A Job Well Done

Standard

Spring comes round and I don’t know if you’re like me, but I see all the jobs that need to be done in the house and garden! I make a list and don’t know where to start.

This year, there seems to be more than usual, as during last year lots didn’t get done for various reasons!  (All very legitimate reasons I must say!)

 Anyway – I have been known, sadly, to bemoan the fact that there are loads of jobs to make things look and feel better.  To “sort out” clutter, to get rid of unnecessary stuff, to paint walls and freshen up rooms… you know how it is. Mark also makes lists of things he wants (needs) to do, and sometimes we have the same items on our lists!

Mark is very good at not being troubled at the huge lists and begins to work on various jobs to shorten that list!

He does outdoor stuff when the weather is good and lots of admin when the weather is not so good. This season there’s been a lot of admin done! And that gets to me!  Because I have a list of indoor jobs that include him but don’t include admin!

So it seems to me that things take a VERY. LONG. TIME to complete!

Today, on my list was a lot of regular housey-type things… shopping, a few loads of laundry, ironing, planning meals as well as work I needed to do for Church and our Coffee Shop! Pretty mundane and none of the “big” JOBS THAT NEEDED DOING!

Anyway, I was hanging out my second lot of laundry when I had a sudden “moment” of happiness that stopped me in my pegging!  I thought, “How lovely is this- a sunny day and the pleasure of hanging out laundry and getting it dried in the sunshine!” I had a flashback to when I used to hang terry nappies out when my babies were wee (disposables were a luxury). I was really overwhelmed with a sense of achievement and gratitude that I could actually do this- hang the laundry outside, as I realised  this actually constituted arm workouts and leg stretches ( I know I’m stretching it- bad pun!)

In all this mundaneness, I was grateful that I had accomplished something and it made me see that it is so easy to gripe about jobs not done and the long list still waiting, instead of taking joy in the moment of a job ( albeit a small one) well done.

 I hope I’ve learned this lesson… to be grateful for small achievements as well as bigger ones… Life is full of the “little and often” and I forget… they are still worth doing!

Time to Pick Things up Again

Standard

Today – someone reminded me of a blog post I wrote number of years ago and commented that they missed what I wrote!
It made me think again of things that I have left aside, for various reasons and sometimes for simply being forgetful. Like my knitting… I set out with a lot of enthusiasm and something stops me and I lay it aside to do other things, but it does need to be picked up and finished!
Or my garden!
Just now I’m weeding, planting out seedlings of vegetables, watering and maintaining the garden (not all by myself I hasten to add!). But over the winter months – very little got done in my garden. Although, the very nature of a garden is that much of it isn’t seen as it was under leaves, decomposing, readying itself for a new season of growth.
So just like I need to pick up my hoe and trowel and get my gardening gloves on, and think “garden”, so too, I need to pick up some things that have been laid aside.
It’s remembering not to forget the precious life lessons we can learn in our daily walk. Some may appear to be humdrum – clearing leaves and tidying. Others need a bit more effort – replanting, replacing, moving sites etc. Still other things are new starts… trying Romanesco and different kinds of tomato plants.
So maybe my thoughts just now are more for me than you… but I think it’s time to pick up my life lessons ponderings again and remember the joys in some of the wee things in life that are just so very wonderful!

Dirty Windows

Standard

Clearing up our Christmas decorations this morning and getting to clear up the needles and dust that gathers during the festive period… I noticed how dirty my windows were!

The sun was lovely, shining outside, but made the splodges and dust and smears seem very, very prominent. I couldn’t see clearly into the garden and I found myself concentrating on the dirt and not seeing beyond.

I’d received a wonderful pair of binoculars for Christmas and even looking through them into the distance didn’t help- I really couldn’t see beyond the dirt!

As I do, I was pondering this over a cup of tea and realised how easy it is for us to do this with our lives. We either don’t notice the mucky windows, and peer through trying to see more clearly and into something better, or we focus on the dirty windows!

How easy is this! When God shines His love and grace on us, we can become so caught up with the “grimy” stuff in our lives… stuff that keeps us from seeing the days ahead more clearly, with hope and the knowledge that God is in our Future… that we beat ourselves up with guilt, trying to strive to do better. Or, we don’t even see the dirt and therefore don’t deal with the things that God wants to shine His light on in our lives.

What a difference when I’d cleaned the windows… I saw colours on the bird’s wings, buds beginning to appear on the shrubs and trees, and my heart really leapt for the promise of spring!

How are your soul windows today? Ready for a clean? Then get the vinegar mix out and give them a polish… let the Holy Spirit shed His cleansing light on you…and take heart … you’ll see so much better!

So it’s The Government’s Fault???

Standard

So it’s the government’s fault … or Minister-for-whatever’s fault!

I’ve got to admit, I’m very frustrated with how many things are popping up on news feeds and other social media streams that are full of criticism for … well pretty much anything and everything that isn’t right at the moment.

It’s as if blaming a political party, a politician, or a senior “official” makes things better or makes it ok!

Why do we find it so essential to apportion blame?

I’m not saying that we don’t ever hold people responsible for things that need to be accounted for, it’s more the way so many people seem to take an almost sadistic pleasure in making others squirm, that I feel is so inappropriate and damaging.

Most of us are not making the absolutely huge decisions that have to be made at a time of crisis, as well as getting on with all the other issues that have very little, if anything, to do with CV-19!

Surely we can find it in our heart to give some grace and understanding to those under extreme pressure to fix everything!

I’m sure after this Crisis is long past there will be more criticism of the way things were handled and a post-mortem on who said what, when, why and what they should have done.

Can I ask for some kindness toward our leaders and decision-makers? There’s kindness going around for people in need and isolated people… let’s have bigger hearts and extend the same kindness to those in jobs and positions that most of us will never be in or have to cope with the things they need to decide! 🙂

1 Timothy 2: 1-4 TPT  “Most of all, I’m writing to encourage you to pray with gratitude to God. Pray for all men with all forms of prayers and requests as you intercede with intense passion. 2 And pray for every political leader and representative so that we would be able to live tranquil, undisturbed lives, as we worship the awe-inspiring God with pure hearts. 3 It is pleasing to our Saviour-God to pray for them. 4 He longs for everyone to embrace his life and return to the full knowledge of the truth.”

Seeds of Hope

Standard

Today, I went out to garden… pretty much the first time this year as the weather has been poor and if I’m absolutely honest… I’m rather a fair-weather gardener! I don’t mind weeding and sorting, clipping and sowing seeds, planting veg and enjoying the garden we have as long as it’s warm (and preferably sunny!)
It was really nice to be out there… I have some raised beds and they were very much in need of weeding and getting ready for the seeds I’d sown indoors a couple of days ago. They need some compost applying and digging in but I really enjoyed the preparing and anticipation of what was going to be planted and raised there.
It was a very hopeful moment… knowing that these were being made ready for months ahead when crops would be harvested and enjoyed.
I felt that winter was over and the hope of spring and new things were hovering in the air. What a beautiful thing to hold onto in this time of Isolation and enforced being at home. When the news bulletins and social media streams are often filled with bad news and fearful stories, it’s good to find glimpses of normal and hope in the surroundings.
I do have the blessing of living in the country and see wide-open spaces… but I thought too… we have window sills, and maybe planting some seeds… herbs, salad or some nasturtium in tubs there will help to plan for better days ahead. It’s so worth sowing hope in other ways too … shouting over the fence to neighbours or out of the window to someone across the street to encourage them and let them know we are not alone… we’re in it together… and then, when the seeds have grown and the veg and flowers appear… maybe then we can sit around a table and share the fruit of our hopeful sowing!

What goes on in the Dark!

Standard


Today, whilst spring cleaning my kitchen and some cupboards, I had this beautiful scent float past me! Not sure of where it was coming, from I went on a wee hunt! Mostly when I clean my kitchen its unpleasant smells I’m getting rid of, but not this time … I opened one of my infrequently used cupboards and there was the scent!  A full blown pale blue hyacinth pot… looking a little droopy and it had rather pale leaves having been locked in my cupboard for at least six or seven weeks!

I brought it out onto the kitchen table and found a couple of twigs to help it stand tall, watered it and just sat there admiring it!

 Almost as strong as the fragrance this amazing flower was giving was the sense of God saying “See! Even in the dark places, the hidden places, the forgotten places, I bring to blossom those that are planted in the good soil of my Word. The aroma of my Grace in their lives draws people and causes them to stand in awe!”

Such a lesson of how God is at work in us in the hidden, and even the darkest seasons of our lives! I hadn’t watered those hyacinths bulbs since the initial watering of the soil they were planted in… and yes, they were ready for more water, but they had sprouted, grown, blossomed and allowed the aroma of their presence in the cupboard give off such a heady, “hope-of-spring” balm, rather than a bitter, rotting scent.

 I thought how much we need to allow God’s Word to permeate our lives so that even in the dark dry seasons of hidden forgotteness we draw from Him and allow our growing to be a sweet aroma of worship and honour to the Lord who gives Grace and sustenance!

 Now this delightful flower is gracing my kitchen table and is exposed to the light and air… growing tall and strong and green.

Be encouraged… you are not forgotten and your day is coming, when who you became in the dark will be seen in the light!

Sick times!

Standard

So I got sick!

So – I got sick!

Breast Cancer!

Regular mammogram picked it up … so important to go for your checks! But, you know the medical team were fantastic… quickly got me through an operation to remove offending tumour and onto the programme of preventing it reoccurring!

Which, let’s be honest, was not pleasant… Chemo sucks – but if it works – I can do it!!

Radiotherapy was great… no issues there … and a “holiday “ in Edinburgh to boot!!

To be fair the accommodation was basic – but free on the NHS .

Forget the food – buy your own as it was pretty bad!

So grateful for all that I’ve been through… The staff were lovely – so kind and thoughtful and the people I met… a-mazing! Encouraging, strong and when they had a wobble – I could be strong … because my wobble was just around the corner!

I wouldn’t wish this journey on anyone… but, you know, I’m so glad to have travelled this road… I’ve grown, learned loads, met people who have encouraged and inspired me… and I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Oh yes! There’s joy in the tough times, and God has been so faithful and present with me.

I‘ve laughed at my wig, come through the baldness and lack of eybrows and eyelashes  etc! and seen that I am me… no matter what I look like, what I suffer or what I go through… I am blessed to live!

Maybe not what I would have chosen… but so blessed to have travelled this path!

So – let me encourage you … the best IS yet to come and the most Faithful, kind God is in my way…and yours!

I am Blessed… and getting better!