Oh to be Slow

Oh to be slow


To not be in a rush.
To take my time.

To listen.
To watch.
To see.
To really observe.

The flight of a bird.
The sound of my son's voice.
The labour of my man.

The squeak of baby mice.
The thump of a nervous rabbit.
The crunching of food.
The chirp of a budgie.
The squeak of a wheel.

To listen.
To hear the sound of the Spirit.
To know fully the cost of the cross.
The awareness of that quiet voice within.
The roar of the lion of Judah.

Take the time.
Let it sink in.

To be slow
To take the time.
To not be in a rush.

Slow

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This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate.  Today the word is Slow.  What is Five Minute Friday?  Well it's a party of a group of like minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a singular word.  AND THEN we take the time to offer up encouragement to each other on this writing journey.  It's fun, though it's not always easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won't you?  You are always welcome.

The Lad's Research: caribou

Caribou can be found in the northern parts of Europe, Asia, Greenland and North America. Caribou can be found in coniferous forests characterized by swampy areas, Lakes and rivers.

Caribou are also known as reindeer, There are two types of caribou the woodland caribou and the tundra caribou. The tundra caribou has six subspecies but the woodland caribou only has three. Caribou can reach up to 4-5 feet at shoulder height and up to 700 ponds in weight. The body of caribou is covered with a winter coat which provides insulation at the low outer temperatures. The furs color depends on the species. It can range from dark to light brown.

Caribou are the only species in the deer family were both males and females have antlers though the females have smaller antlers and lose them after giving birth. Males shed their antlers after mating season. Caribou will also use their antlers to dig in snow.

Reindeer are herbivores (plant-eaters) and depending what time of year, they will feed on various plants, grass and lichens. They will travel up to 3,000 miles each year in search of food. They can run at 50 miles per hour. "Caribou have scent glands at the base of their ankles that are used when the animal is in danger. It will rear up on its hind legs to release a scent that alerts the other caribou to the danger it is facing." (source).

Sources are here or here.

Pajamas Are Optional

The Homeschool Review Crew does word prompts for Instagram fun, I think it's great to have these words prompts for doing quick posts.  :)   I find them fun as sometimes it surprises me where my brain goes.  :)

The word for today is Pajamas.  Let's follow my brain where it goes eh?
_____

Pajamas are optional!

When I went to school one of my roommates didn't wear pajamas!   WOW what a shock to this naive country girl.  

For a while I steered clear of that young lady thinking how odd she was... 

It took me a while to realize this fundamental truth... She was a nice girl.  She really was and we became friends (can you believe it!?!?!).  Despite our differences and the shock it was to me at the time...

So when I saw this word, that friendship came back to me and reminded me of this truth....

There are many things in life that optional.

How one approaches life.
How one appears to others.
What our attitude toward life is..
Along with ....
The food we eat.
The clothes we wear (or don't).
The people we spend time with. 
The expressions we wear on our faces.

The question we need to ask ourselves is this...
Can we love the person who is before us?

How can we look past the differences to see the person that God has created?

It's not always an easy thing... when one is faced with unwashed bodies, a different skin tone, a manner of address, a gaping mouth, a stern expression, a hidden body clothing style, or the opposite indeed.

Seeing the person within is sometimes a challenge.
Can we see what is optional and what is important?

Something to work on together eh?

Books for Canada: Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush

I very much enjoyed this book about Jack London.   

If you don't know who he is, he is the guy who wrote books such as "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang".  Books that inspire us to know more about Canada's northland and the critters contained therein.

Both of those books were favourites of mine as a youngster.   Calling me into the land of untamed wilderness and the heart of animals that are part of it.  :)

BUT this book is NOT about those animals, but about the man who wrote the books.   A biography of a great author. His books required and desired reading among Canadian Students, speaking to the allure of the north.

Jack London who got swept up in the Gold Rush of 1897.

Filled with photographs of the day and the daring heroism of the men who set a goal.. GET TO THE GOLD!!!   Climbing over mountains, fording rivers, canoeing across large rivers, dealing with weather, and fording through the untamed wilds of Canada.

The sheer hardship they went through.
The number of men forced to turn back.
The fight against the land and the weather and the animals.

The sheer joy of striking it rich.
The thrill of making it through the rushing water.
The knowledge of the need to return home.  
The sorrow when riches weren't found.

So many stories and adventures contained within one book.  

What else did I appreciate in this book?

The timeline in the back of the book.
running from 1876 to 1912.

His early life and his love of books. 

His work as a seaman. 
His vagrancy. 
Gold rush days.
Marriage to Bessie May Maddern.
And various books/stories written.


I appreciated that the author explained that he did take some liberties with the story.  Much in the book in included from writing from Mr. London and others who travelled with him.  

 Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush

188 pages
published by Henry Holt and Company
Written by Peter Lourie
Type: Biography
Written for ages 8-12.
Illustrated by Wendell Minor

Reviewed for Raincoast Books 

 Amazon.ca: Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush

 Amazon.com: Jack London and the Klondike Gold Rush

For His Name's Sake

We continue our study in Ezekiel, the last time we met was about Forgetting the Holiness of God. You can read more in my Ezekiel Studies here and here.

Do you remember yesterday that the Lord had concern for his holy name?   He had disciplined his people and still they made mockery of his name.

Today the Lord is going to do something.. you see that word "THEREFORE"? It is a connector word linking two thoughts. "“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God:"

God is going to act "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came."

So God is going to vindicate the holiness of his great name.
That name that has been profaned among the nations.
That name which THEY (his people) have profaned.
 The end result: The nations will know that " I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holines before their eyes."

Vindicate means to justify, prove, or reinforce an idea — or to absolve from guilt.

God is going to justify the holiness of his name, absolve it from guilt, prove his holiness.

To do so God will do the following.
- take them from among the nations and bring them into their own land
- will clean up from from their uncleannesses
- clean them up from their idols.
- give them a New heart and a New Spirit.
- remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
-   And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules      
- You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
- there won't be a famine in their land
- crops and produce will be abundant
-  Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.  

But God is not acting for THEIR sake (though they will benefit).  He wants that to be really clear to them.  They should be ashamed of what they have done, confounded by God's mercy to them.

When the people are cleansed, the Lord God will populate their cities, till desolated land, what was waste will become beautiful.   It will be a noticeable change.

 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. 

The Lord would have his people know this:

³⁷ “Thus says the Lord God: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. ³⁸ Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

He will build up his people. 
The change in them will be noticeable by the nations around them.
And all will know this....The Lord is God.  

God did all this stuff for his people.
I have to wonder if they appreciated it.
If they saw his goodness and holiness.

I know that God does all this stuff for me...even without me even asking... and how often I fail to see his holiness.  Do you ever have that reader?   That you fail to see God's holiness or fail to thank him for the blessings he bestows, or fail to see just how holy he really is?

Let us do better at this eh?