The Day Before Yesterday's Hymn

It's so good to be writing again! For me, it's an overflow of blessings in my cup. When God gives you a  niche, there is no feeling to match the satisfaction of developing it.
The day before yesterday, I took my laptop to the wooden bridge over our little pond. The air was cool but the sun was warm, and it was so quiet, I could almost hear the fish swimming. I wrote on a few projects, but the notion that the Creator was being playful with his creation that day was terribly distracting. Finally, I just gave into the enjoyment He was feeling in the afternoon.
When a writer steps into the meeting place of the Lord Almighty and nature, a hymn usually follows. Three words came into my head: Beneath the Waters, and this came afterward:

When, kneeling at the cross, I pour

confession in Christ's holy ears,

no sweeter honey than his love

restores my heart through broken tears.

Beneath the waters-

he cleanses my soul

and from separation he draws me near

For under the water

my coffin, hid, brings death to this body

but with him I live!

Though fears uncounted raise the stream,

his Spirit cometh like a dove.

The moment I obey I hear:

'This is my child- whom I love!'

In last baptism, we lay down

and rise in resurrection-birth,

when in the glory of the Lord,

we see the Lord return to earth.

This was wonderful enough, but the drop that made the cup too full was the piano music- it came as easily as making pumpkin pie. Sometimes, pleasing God is as simple as enjoying living. If praise was mystic, then homely things would be worth despising. But he has made the common things valuable and bonding; and if we look with the angle of light that beautifies the lowliest object, we find great happiness!

Brain Information

  Dr. Caroline Leaf is a Christian and a professional neurologist. I've been reading some of her books and am impressed at the wisdom God has given her about the brain and how he designed it; it reminds me of scientists like Newton and Einstein who used the Bible as their starting places in research, discovering groundbreaking truths by understanding the Creator.

The human brain functions on seven areas for processing and storing information. From the first day your brain developed in the womb, it has been gathering information in a pattern that is absolutely unique to you. Like your fingerprints, your brain is made specifically and individually. No one thinks like you.

The seven pillars of interpreting thoughts are intrapersonal, interpersonal, linguistic, musical, kinesthetic, visual, mathematical. Every particle of information entering your brain through your five senses are processed in these seven areas in your unique pattern and percentage. Solomon, the king of ancient Israel who devoted himself to wisdom and understanding, referred to these in his book of Proverbs chapter 9. 'Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars...'

In Dr. Leaf's first book The Gift in You, she expounds on the personal identity of the brain and healthy transformation our brains undergo scientifically when we renew our minds. I guess apostle Paul was way ahead of the game when he wrote Romans 12:2. He definitely spoke the truth about our good judgment and peace improving when we put away toxic thinking patterns of self-absorbency, introspection, fear, doubt, worry and resentment and form healthy habits based on security and love. Love is the truth in God's world because he created it to show his love and kindness to. Ephesians 3:19 says: 'May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.'

Studies show that 87% of our illnesses are a direct result of our thought life, and only about 13% to diet, genetics, and environment. In Who Switched Off My Brain?, Dr. Leaf describes the anatomy of a thought- it's huge and complex!- and every one is attached to a release of emotion chemicals that connect your mind to a reaction in your body. Depression, cancer, heart disease and heart problems, headaches, strokes, and allergies are some of the consequences medical science has directly linked to emotions activated by poor thinking.

Controlling our thoughts is critical. Paul addressed this in his letter to the Philippians- chapter 4:4-8. 8Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praise- worthy.'

The last book I've read from Dr. Leaf is Who Switched Off Your Brain?. It was the funnest to read because it divulged the secrets of gender brain distinctions, and it practically helped me understand guys and girls better. We are created profoundly different! but that's not a surprise, is it? Guys' brains are designed to solve and act; that's why political, military, religious, scientific research and hands-on professional fields have been filled with mostly male activists for thousands of years; and if you want to dupe a nation you must fill it with distracted and passive guys first. Ladies' brains absorb great detail; making us experts at reading nuances, tones, facial expression and body language; our mirror neurons develop our empathy; our senses are more sensitive and expressions quickly activated. That's why women make excellent wives, mothers, talkers, helpers and friends because they can see into the soul. All this information and intuition, however, leaves room for misunderstanding and amplification, opening us to fear and insecurity, wounding our vulnerability or turning us into control freaks.

The different structures, functions and perspectives of male and female brains are perfectly complimentary. God created us to need and help each other, making a me-first mentality unproductive when compared to the amazing potential of working together.

This is a quote from a letter Paul wrote to Christians in Galatia: '13Brothers and sisters, God has called you to freedom! Hear the call, and do not spoil this gift by using your liberty to engage in what your flesh desires; instead, use it to serve each other as Jesus taught through love. 14For the whole law comes down to this one instruction: “Love your neighbor as yourself,”so 15why all this vicious gnawing on each other? If you are not careful, you will find you’ve eaten each other alive!'

Science proves the Bible.

Dr. Leaf has explicated the truths from cutting-edge neuroscience that verifies God's word and has given applicable, biblical and scientific solutions. Reading these books has expanded my understanding of God and the world he has made. I highly recommend them!

The Enormous Knitting Project

Last winter I bought a pair of wooden circular knitting needles and decided to make something enormous. A blanket is a pretty large project, so I bought two skeins of wool yarn and began with double threads. It would be double thick, double warm, and double enormous!

I didn't even count how many stitches I stuffed on the little needles- when it looked big, I started on the second row.

For weeks I worked and progressed. It took a full half hour to knit from one side to the other. My hands were always occupied when a friend came over, and during family meetings, and especially during movies: an 'I Love Lucy' was once across my project, a feature was three or four times across. Slowly, it grew by centimeters and inches. Every week or more I went to Michaels with a coupon for yarn.

When it became enormous I went to Hawaii for three months, and when I came back I had fallen out of the knitting mood so it laid in my closet for months- a 1 yard by over 3 yard enormous heap.

Today, I unraveled it.

Unraveling it was a sizable project by itself!

I turned a chair upside-down and wound the yarn around the four legs. It took a long time, and my arms were stiff and sore when I was done. Then I wound it into a ball.

Now I hope to knit a blanket with it, instead of a rectangle.

I'm a visual girl: I write and express how I perceive things, like describing pictures in my head about life.

I think our lives are like an enormous knitting project. We grow by centimeters and inches, investing small measures of time and attention in the material we choose to use and become.

A holy life is like pure wool- double thick in wisdom and rich experience, double warm in acceptance and empathy, and double enormous in being a blessing!

Our lives are constantly progressing with friends, family times, meals, movies, resting, reading, working, learning, processing, talking, etc. and when our lives are done, they are oddly shaped by thousands of 'stitches' of varied occurrences.

One day God will unravel the mystery of our lives. He will undo us, running the turquoise and maroon threads of sadness and joys through his fingers, touching us in every minute of our past and assuring us that his hands were always around us as we hurt and laughed and re-worked mistakes and grew. He knit us together in the womb, fitting our tiny parts in place, and he has plans for our seemingly normal lives to exploding with invisible power and potential. The knitting needles are his tools, and he will employ people, conversations, events and experiences to fashions us perfectly if we will let him.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous -- and how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! 18 I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me! ~ Psalm 13